You might define what middle east is by various criteria:
language, religion, ethnicities, culturally, political allies, "whattheywannabe", geography. I took it geographically as only a small tip of Turkey is in Europe. Your argumentation: No Turkish inhabitant want to be called Arab is absolutely correct. But the same argument you will find a lot also in Lebanon. " We are not arab, but a middle eastern country" the NATO or "dont want to be considered arab" idea would then also disqualify "Israel" orfrom beeing Middle eastern . Well, so the defining it geographically is IMHO , the least problematic one.. However one can discuss how far east the middle east stretches.... but coming back to the point. I wonder when they annouces that Qatar Airlines tightens its relation with *A, that would truely be Middle eastern |
Except that even geographically traditionally Turkey was never ever considered part of the "Middle East". Anatolia 9which is the 97% or so of the country that you refer to was always referred to as 'the East', and the Ottoman Empire was always called the "sick man of Europe", not the "sick man of the Middle East"
Your criteria: language, religion, ethnicities, culturally, political allies, "whattheywannabe", geography. I took it geographically as only a small tip of Turkey is in Europe. The language is Turkish, which does NOT eminate from the middle east, yes there are a few words derived from Arabic and Farsi, but there are even more derived from French and Latin. Religion, Yes the vast majority is Muslim, however as the vast majority of Muslims live nowhere near the Middle East this is not a geographic criteria (if it were, every "Christian" country would also be Middle Eastern. Ethnicities, Appx. 20% of the population are ethnically Kurdish and another 2% Arab, yes these are "middle easterners" the rest are not. Culturally, other than the Islam (which as pointed out above has no standing in defining a Muslim country as Middle East, Turks identifying themselves as "more Muslim" has nothing whatsoever with defining themselves as middle eastern. I will say that the extreme southeast, where incidentally the aforementioned kurds and arabs live is culturally midle eastern. Political ties? Other than Nato, OECD , wanting to be in the EU, Turkey has never had great ties with its neighbours to the south. Its closest ally in the region for the last 50 years or so has been Israel, other close allies are Georgia and Azerbaijan. |
Originally Posted by Jimmy67
(Post 7826417)
...but coming back to the point.
I wonder when they annouces that Qatar Airlines tightens its relation with *A, that would truely be Middle eastern |
Kenya Airways
Now that I created an off the topic discussion, I am going to return to the topic at hand.
I have been wondering about the status of KQ with relation to joining ST. The recent crash may have delayed KQ joining ST. However, there does not seem too much discussion about it. Maybe the fact that nothing is being said, is good. |
The fact that the ST board gets more discussion about geography (where in the world is Turkey, where in the world is Mexico) just shows you all how little else there is to talk about!
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Originally Posted by SFO-SJC Flyer
(Post 7830890)
Now that I created an off the topic discussion, I am going to return to the topic at hand.
I have been wondering about the status of KQ with relation to joining ST. The recent crash may have delayed KQ joining ST. However, there does not seem too much discussion about it. Maybe the fact that nothing is being said, is good. The agent in KGL claims that they had someone from HQ visit them to do a training on Skyteam last week. Take it with a grain of salt, but it could be very soon |
FWIW, there is a report that Air Europa will get ST asssociate membership effective in September. This apparently comes from Telefonica's Investia internet news site, reported on airliners.net.
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CSA OK Plus just added UX and KQ to their partner list. Last time this happened was with SU who then joined SkyTeam, so things are progressing it seems!
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a press release by the ST on the ST website gives more hope:
http://skyteam.com/EN/aboutSkyteam/p...r/pr050607.jsp |
Originally Posted by Gnopps
(Post 7870625)
CSA OK Plus just added UX and KQ to their partner list. Last time this happened was with SU who then joined SkyTeam, so things are progressing it seems!
It this a new listing, by any chance? I notice Air Malta is also listed. |
Seems to me that ST actually is a "Northern Hemisphere Alliance." ST seriously lacks a full South America and SE Asia member.
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Originally Posted by dieuwer2
(Post 7894072)
Seems to me that ST actually is a "Northern Hemisphere Alliance." ST seriously lacks a full South America and SE Asia member.
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Brazilian GOL
The brazilian GOL airlines (new owner of VARIG) signed an operational agreement with CO last week. Today they are announcing the same with DL.
Would that mean they are moving towards ST ? Or VARIG maybe ? |
Originally Posted by MMM
(Post 7901129)
The brazilian GOL airlines (new owner of VARIG) signed an operational agreement with CO last week. Today they are announcing the same with DL.
I didn't see anything on the CO press release page, so I can't imagine that CO sees it as too big a deal. |
Originally Posted by sbm12
(Post 7902694)
Operational agreement as in interline checkin/baggage? Or something more? I would assume that most carriers would be chomping at the bit to get interline agreements in place for when they have connecting passengers, and I would assume a fair amount of that from S. America up in to the US.
I didn't see anything on the CO press release page, so I can't imagine that CO sees it as too big a deal. It is a bit interesting as LCCs don't usually do these sorts of things. |
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