Fluid Borders in the Aegean

Imbros, Lesbos and the Archipelago

Bibliographic Data

ID21875571
AuthorsSevcan Ercan (0000-0003-2618-236X, Istanbul Medeniyet University, corresponding author)
Year2023
Volume11
Issue3-4
Pages353-372
Publication date2023-10-02
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueArchitecture and Culture (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 2050-7836 • E-ISSN: 2050-7828
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/20507828.2025.2462350
OpenAlexW4408633841
LanguageEN
References cited21

This paper explores issues concerning political borders imposed within the Aegean Archipelago, focusing particularly on two Aegean islands – Imbros and Lesbos – as comparative cases. Today the Aegean Sea and Archipelago function as an unconventional threshold, separating Europe from the non-western powers of the Near and Middle East. Ongoing perpetual migration into Europe via Türkiye is altering the understanding of the Aegean as a fixed borderland, revealing the inherent fluidity which underpins it. This is a process in the making and can go in many different directions. Analyzing historical and current spatial politics of the region, I claim that the Aegean Sea border has increasingly begun to act akin to Giorgio Agamben’s theory of “zones of indistinction.” Imbros, as the westernmost landmass of Türkiye, and Lesbos, as part of the easternmost group of Greek islands, offer themselves as key sites to examine new bordering practices, analyzed in relation to the phenomenon of archipelago and Agamben’s thought

Archipelago · Balkans: History, Politics, Society · Classical Antiquity Studies · Geology · Oceanography

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