Re: CHAT: The EU expands (was Re: THEORY/CHAT: Talmy, Jackendoff and Matchboxes)

Frank George Valoczy said:
>> Danny Wier said:
>>>
>>> The EU now has languages from three families: IE, Uralic and
>>> Afro-Asiatic.
>>> Malta was a close vote; the others were not. Turkey got rejected, and I
>>> assume Cyprus means only the Greek part, so no Altaic languages yet.
>>
>> Cyprus means Cyprus, which is bilingual. (There are probably some
>> Cypriots
>> who would disagree, but that's the EU position as nearly as I can tell.)
>> The Translation Directorate is expanding to include Turkish as a
>> co-official language or something like that -- Turkish Cypriots are
>> certainly not being left out in today's expansion.
>>
>
> No, it seems to mean only the Greek part, from the way they've been
> talking about it here (Canada)
There is no question about what is Cyprus and what is not. All of Cyprus,
which includes the Turkish-speaking northern area that is currently
occupied by the Turkish military, joined the EU yesterday.

What *is* the case is that the acquis communautaire (the body of European
Law) was suspended until some sort of settlement is reached in Cyprus
among the two ethnic factions and Turkey. That doesn't mean that the law
applies any less in the north than anywhere else in the EU. It means that
the Commission understands that it cannot enforce European law in a
renegade area where not even the government in Nicosia can effectively
enforce *national* law. It also means that infractions against European
law in the affected jurisdiction (or lack thereof) during the suspension
will not be prosecuted.

But saying "only the Greek part of Cyprus joined the EU" is simply wrong
unless you choose to believe that Turkey is correct in recognizing "North
Cyprus" as a country while everybody else on the planet is wrong.


-- Mark

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