Kapitan Andreevo, Bulgaria
The Borders of the European Union
July 13, 2012
It rises now before me, a dark and silent barrier between
All I am, and all that I would ever want be
It's just a travesty, towering, marking
off the boundaries my spirit would erase
- Kansas
When the bus approaches the Turkish border I see a familiar sign, the flag of the European Union waving in the fading daylight. Turkey’s western border past the town of Yenikaden is shared with two members of the European Union, Bulgaria and Greece. My bus will ultimately be proceeding onward through Bulgaria to Kosovo, but first there are the border formalities. For me, this was hardly an issue as I do not need a visa to enter any of the countries in the European Union. However, for the other passengers on the bus it wasn’t quite as simple. While I waited for them I had a chance to get a quick meal at the Burger King at the immigration and customs station. There was also a very large duty free shop that some of the passengers took advantage of to buy cartons of cigarettes.
As I waited for all the other passengers to finish I observed officials inspecting incoming vehicles and in some cases conducting highly detailed searches, perhaps looking for drugs. Some of the vehicles looked like they had been dismantled as part of the searches. The thoroughness of the searches is understandable as a substantial amount of drugs moves through Turkey on the way to the markets Europe. There is also a flow of immigrants searching for a better life and the opportunities that the European Union can provide. In this sense the border forms a sort of invisible wall that separates the more developed countries of Europe with their still developing neighbors to the east. As long as these economic disparities persist, this border will remain contentious.