On a list of the many romantic place names in the world, Istanbul ranks high. Its former names--Byzantium, Constantinople, and the contraction, "Stamboul" share the glamor. Its location on the Golden Horn, that magnificent harbor of the Bosphorus, and its proximity to the Aegean Sea, the Sea of Marmara, and the Dardanelles [the Hellespont] adds to the enchantment. The city is on the southeastern edge of Europe and a few miles from it, one can drive across a bridge to Asia. Istanbul, of course, is in Turkey and Turkey is not exactly a popular country. The Ottoman Empire had a terrible reputation and its treatment of its Armenian neighbors, especially at the end of World War I, was so outrageous that it is called genocidal. Turkey's government has changed drastically since those days when it was known as "the sick man of Europe" although most of the country is in Asia Minor. This vast region is even more mysterious than the Far East. This is the land of Ali Baba and Aladdin. Turkey was modernized and reformed under Kemal Ataturk after a bloody revolution in 1923. In the years since his death, the government and its policies have been confusing to the outside world.
Read More