May 29 is a holiday in Turkey. It is celebrated with great pomp and ceremony, especially in Istanbul because it marks the anniversary of the Ottoman conquest of Constantinople on that day in 1453. After a 53-day siege, the forces of Sultan Mehmet II were able to breach the walls of the city, following […]
Why Revive a Nightmare?
For years, Recep Tayyip Erdogan has been running around like a headless chicken clucking about the glories of Ottoman Empire and the benefits, to Islam, of its revival. While he doesn’t say who would become the first Sultan 2.0, it’s obvious the former Istanbul football player believes he would make a perfect sultan. But before […]
Blunders of an Intelligent Man
The Moscow State Institute of International Relations (MGIMO) is the Harvard of Russia. It’s the alma mater of the largest number of Russian Forbes magazine list members and representatives of the Russian political elite. Sergei Lavrov, Russia’s foreign minister; Irina Bekova, ex-director-general of UNESCO; and historian Sergo Mikoyan are graduates of MGIMO. So is President […]