The glories of the Ottoman Empire are a Turkish delight

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette ^ | Saturday, November 01, 2003 | Dan Simpson

[Willie Green]

Having lived nine years in parts of the former Ottoman Empire but never having visited Turkey, the country at the core of that entity, I was looking forward to seeing what its largest city and former capital, Istanbul, looked like.

[Willie Green]

A World Still Haunted by Ottoman Ghosts

[HuntsvilleTxVeteran]

They murdered several million Christians in the 1900's.

[Cicero]

Most of the glories of Istanbul were built by Greek Christians. Most of those mosques are stripped out churches. Hagia Sophia, one of the wonders of the world, was the Christian basilica.

Yes, on the whole I've been told that Turks are nice to travelers. People I've known have very much enjoyed visiting the Anatolian Coast, for instance. But the glories of Constantinople go back to an age before the Turks conquered the city.

From what I understand, it was indeed the Arabs who first drank coffee. You have to give them that.

[SamiGirl]

The writer of this article needs to read up on history. Just ask the people of Bulgaria how "wonderful" it was to be enslaved by the Turks for 500 years and endure mass murders and the persecution of Christianity. Maybe he (the writer) can then understand why so many churches were built underground to escape the wrath of this "glorious" empire and why so many towns have buildings literally filled to the ceiling with the bones of the murdered Christians.

As for the blond, blue-eyed Turks, these are the descendants of the Slavic people whose infant male children were systematically kidnapped by the Turks and raised to serve the Sultan. Oh yeah, isn't Turkey just grand.

[Lion in Winter]

Yes, as I read not too long ago the sultan's had two harems... filled with captured children:

little boys filled one and one was filled with little girls.... all his personal "love toys".

What a bunch of perverts!

[Lion in Winter]

BTTT

[StACase]

Thanks for the post, my son worked in Istanbul for six months in 2001, coming home in August. We went to visit and have Turkish vacation with him that July. I concur with all that you have written.

[Willie Green]

I concur with all that you have written.

Well... uhm.. thank-you...
But I'm afraid I can't take credit for authoring someone else's article.
I only posted it here for discussion.

;^)

[KellyAdmirer]

Having spent a fair amount of time in Turkey, I can say that Istanbul has almost nothing to do with the rest of the country. It would be like calling New York City typical of New York. It is a very tightly controlled society that happens to have some of the best ruins and remaining ancient architecture of the Mediterranean. It also is cheap as anything to live well there. The borders are fortified - you can't walk across them - and police checkpoints are common. It is great to visit, but the people are poor and once you get away from the tourist centers, even poorer.

[bayourod]

I suppose you hate all Southerners also because Southern states had slavery.
Modern Turkey was reshaped by Attaturk. He banned many Muslim customs such as wearing veils. He required the people to adopt surnames and legalized things that are prohibited by the Muslim religion.
Turks are Europeans, not Arabs.
Most of early Christian history occured in Turkey, including the first baptism of a non-Jew. The 7 churches of Asia were located in Turkey.
Turkish food is the best in the world, and their women are beautiful.

[KiaKaha]

The problem you are facing is that some people will never forget “history”, I am reading a book at the moment about European treatment of peoples in late 19th and early 20th Century China. If everyone in China “could not forget history” they would have every right to hate Christians and Europeans.

[GretchenEE]

Very interesting piece.

I am descended, on my father's side, from the rulers of the Ottoman Empire, and by that route, from a (good) German king. Somewhere along the line some gentle blood and Christianity became my inheritance and predominant influences, for which I thank God continually. I feel much more identification with the Germanic than the Turkish people, due to my father's family (very proud to be Americans, no hyphens) emigrating from Germany only a few generations ago -- and retaining much here of what they left behind. There is a lot to dislike in the historical unrestrained elements of both the Germanic and Turkish societies.

[Cyrus the Great]

Sami,

Blaming Turks for Christian persecution hundreds of years ago, is like blaming you for Slavery and saying you owe Blacks repretations.

Turkey is a very modern, secular, beautiful country moving towards full democracy.

Visiting Istanbul is like being anywhere in Europe, except you're in a Muslim country.

good day!

[Yardstick]

They speak Turkish, apparently related to Hungarian and Finnish...

Very interesting. I never would have guessed that Turkish is related to Finnish.

[Salman]

Nine days there blew us away. It has a population of 16 million, and on the streets on Saturday morning or even at midnight on a weekday one has the impression that there really are a lot of Turks.

Wow man! That's really heavy. Really a lot of Turks. The sheer heaviosity of that statement is blowing my mind.
< /sarcasm >

Ever seen the Hagia Sofia in Istanbul? That's the largest and grandest mosque ever built.

Oh wait a minute, it was built by Christians, and Hagia Sofia (Holy Wisdom, in Greek) is a title Greek Christians gave to Christ. Oh well.

[dwd1]

I will tell all of my Armenian friends to go there to visit at their earliest convenience....

[dwd1]

Do you still have any family in Germany and if so, where?

[GretchenEE]

Yes, I do, but I am ignorant of the specifics. I was taken away from my father's family when I was young (before such things could be told to me), and didn't see him again till I was 30 (and have had little communication with him about the issue) -- although the genetic, German influence in temperament is very strong in me -- I have striven extremely hard to change it ;-). I asked him about his service in WW2 and he said he just could not go to Germany and shoot his cousins, so he enlisted in the Navy at age 17 after Pearl Harbor and served in the Pacific.

[dwd1]

I was in Ramstein, Germany near Kaiserslautern from 84 to 87... Nice people...

[dwd1]

Of course, being called "Schnuckie Putzie" took some getting used to...