Juri Andruchowytsch on the subjective Europe

The paper reprints a speech on European borders which Ukrainian writer Juri Andruchowytsch delivered in late November, at a conference in Kiev. "Europe is also unusual in a spatial sense. It's difficult enough with the western borders let alone the eastern ones where all sorts of contradictory definitions have cropped up recently... Where in heaven's name are Europe's disputed eastern borders?... In order to arrive at some sort of answer, one could assume that Europe exists wherever the local people believe that they are part of Europe. Or, to go one step further, wherever they consider themselves to be European. So: Europe is a completely subjective term. A Chinese person in China or in Singapore would never consider himself European, neither would an Arab, an Indian, a Mongolian or an Iranian. But an Azerbaijani might do, and you can be pretty sure an Armenian would."

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