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Hans-Peter Geissen

Hans-Peter Geissen lives in Koblenz (Germany), at the confluence of the Rhine and Moselle rivers. Interested in all what concerns faunistics (data about animal species) of the Midrhine region, he is the author of many scientific publications on these issues. He bent on the Turkish issue with a very specific approach so as "to prevent a self-definition of Europe on the grounds of historical or religious mythologies."

Articles de cet auteur (35)

The last Turkish junta and the nazi "Machtergreifung"
9 mars 2010
" ... it really did not look like a hotel. It rather resembled, to be honest, Auschwitz." (Mustafa Akyol, A farewell to rulers in arms Tuesday, February 23, 2010) Well, for German readers and those with specific historical insight, the better comparison would have been Dachau, or Buchenwald. You know, the first generation of Concentration Camps, or KZs, which targeted German politicians and unionists in first line. By the way it included some religious people, homosexuals, artists, and (...)
About the identity of Europe : why it is a problem ? (2)
31 October 2006
«The role of Islam in the emergence of the Christian Humanism and the enlightenment was largely omitted and forgotten : Islamic theology could not take place in Christian Europe as no Muslims had been allowed to survive...» Hans-Peter Geissen lives in Koblenz (Germany), at the confluence of the Rhine and Moselle rivers. Interested in all what concerns faunistics (data about animal species) of the Midrhine region, he is the author of many scientific publications on these issues. He bent on (...)
A propos Nicolas Sarkozy and the problem of the borders (1)
10 August 2007
As a president of France, Nicholas Sarkozy is certainly someone whose words should be taken serious. Though, as a German observing affairs in Turkey, sometimes I may find it difficult to do so, insofar as what arrives at my eyes or ears is a very small selection of what becomes known in France itself, and such fragments may be selected in either a one-sided or an occasional manner. The usual escape from such a problem is to mention the proverb that "deeds speak louder than words", as (...)
Europe -Turkey : a matter of coherence (1)
10 juillet 2006
Discussions about European identity and the accession of Turkey to the EU are frequently based on selected traits of historical and/or ideological developments. And so it is with respect to the precarious self-definition of Turkey as a nation-state, too. But both may be based on material grounds as well, which in turn may shift the arrangement of ideas about the meaning of specific historical events. Hans-Peter Geissen offers to TE’s readers a very specific reflection on the course of the (...)
Making nation from history. A challenge (1)
2 June 2008
Turkish nationalism is a puzzling enigma, which may be manifest on the level of its main protagonists. Sometimes stylized as a "Godfather" of Turkish nationalism, the late-Ottoman intellectual Ziya Gökalp may serve as an appropriate entry. Gökalp, in analogy to and probably descendence from German romanticism, distinguished between culture and civilization. Here, civilization means rather technical and profane aspects of society, while culture means (expressions of) its spirit(uality). (...)
A propos "privileged partnership"
16 January 2008
As we still have to learn what exactly people like Angela Merkel and Nicholas Sarkozy mean when they speak of a "privileged partnership" between Turkey and the European Union, some elements are obvious and some might be inferred from historical precedents quite prominent in European history. Let’s start with the obvious. The main goals are to prevent Turkey, as a state, to take part in the determination of common European policies on an equal footing. Turkey shall not take part in the (...)
The nature of Asia minor (2)
23 October 2007
Regarding the meaning of the terms erep and assu, as well as their descendants Europa and Asia, and then Occidens and Oriens, we find that they mean directions; that is, they are relative terms the exact meaning of which depends on the (normal) position of the speaker, on his or her subjectivity. .... - Following the first article Steppe Obviously, some steppe is a considerable part of the vegetation of Anatolia. Though it was only a minor component in the natural landscape, which was (...)
Making nation from history. A challenge (2)
6 June 2008
Turkish nationalism is a puzzling enigma, which may be manifest on the level of its main protagonists. Another one of Nazim Hikmet’s great-grandfathers was Mehmet Ali Pasha, born with the name Karl Detroit in Brandenburg, Prussia, as the son of Huguenottes, whose forefathers had immigrated from France in 1685. First Article In 1843 Karl, a ship’s boy then, jumped from a Mecklenburgian cargo ship in Istanbul and was lucky to find protection by an Ottoman dignitary, who also organized his (...)
The nature of Asia Minor (1)
19 October 2007
Regarding the meaning of the terms erep and assu, as well as their descendants Europa and Asia, and then Occidens and Oriens, we find that they mean directions; that is, they are relative terms the exact meaning of which depends on the (normal) position of the speaker, on his or her subjectivity. In later times, these terms seem to be more fixed, to become "immovables", spatial entities in their own right. But in fact this process is governed by the naivety of the "speaker", who assumes (...)
Europe-Turkey : a matter of coherence (4)
26 juillet 2006
Discussions about European identity and the accession of Turkey to the EU are frequently based on selected traits of historical and/or ideological developments. And so it is with respect to the precarious self-definition of Turkey as a nation-state, too. But both may be based on material grounds as well, which in turn may shift the arrangement of ideas about the meaning of specific historical events. Hans-Peter Geissen offers to TE’s readers a very specific reflection on the course of the (...)