Soccorro: Look at the ops post. Turkey is totally valid.
awalterj: OP said "partially European", that's technically correct as a whopping 3% of Turkey is geographically in Europe... 97% of the country is not in Europe so take your pick. It's not rocket science. Geography is a deciding factor because otherwise, let's count Australia and New Zealand to Europe as well, right.
If you wanted to build a case around culture being a deciding factor and say Turkey is part of Europe because Istanbul and larger cities look European, one could call that soft bigotry of lower expectations because Turkey and its 70-80% Turkish citizens have a uniquely Turkish culture of their own, and traditional Turkish culture is much closer to that of the other Turkic countries than to any European country. There's people who seriously claim that saying Turkey is not part of Europe is "racist and demeaning" (no joke). I would retort that this kind of sentiment -verbalized or not- is a perfect example of the aforementioned soft bigotry of lower expectations.
All these attempts to count Turkey to Europe don't seem quite rational, I can see there is a political agenda behind it for some (to make Turkey join the EU) but if we're talking geography and culture and keep it real, Turkey is clearly neither in Europe nor European. Even if there has been considerable Westernization in terms of clothing, architecture, infrastructure etc, this doesn't overpower the fact that Turkey has maintained its own traditional culture. Same as Japan, you couldn't go around and claim that Japan belongs to Europe because the country has been westernized in many aspects from the Meiji period onward and most everyone wears Western clothes.
Soccorro: Never mind, im not going to turn this thread into a battlefield. I very well know what youre up to.
awalterj: If you think I'm up to something, be fair and spill it out or let it go.
Go tell the OP i bet he cares! Since that country is partially european, its valid. Now stop spamming the ga, please. Im just playing by the OP's rules. Other than you, im not trying to make a political statement.
ZFR: Cyprus is NOT in Europe. It's closest to Asian part of Turkey and Syria (I've visited Cyprus anyway, so it's a moot point). Aw man, why did you have to remind me that? :-/ I tend to forget it like the whole time, 'cause people here are/feel Greek and speak Greek too-it feels just like Greece, just not in Greece per se, most of the time! 
