The Ottomans took Christian children to provide manpower within the empire. ibid.
Two rival powers on a collision course: Ottomans v Safavids ... The Ottomans tamed the Safavid empire, they did not defeat it. ibid.
In 1517 Ottoman troops marched into battle in Egypt. ibid.
This is the magnificent Topkapi palace, the nerve centre of the most powerful Muslim empire the world has ever seen. It was built by the Ottoman sultan Mehmed II in the middle of the fifteenth century. Rageh Omaar, The Ottomans II
His father had taken control of new lands across Africa and the Arab Muslim world. ibid.
Suleiman: first and foremost he was emperor and he wanted to be as strong as possible in that role. ibid.
Suleiman spent a quarter of his reign on the battlefield and expanded the empire almost to the peak of his power. ibid.
The Ottomans didn’t capture Vienna, and they lost Hungary. ibid.
An old world dynasty colliding with the modern world. ibid.
The war between Russia and Turkey was the big news of the day. ibid.
At the gates of Vienna the Pope’s troops imposed a crushing defeat. Rageh Omaar, The Ottomans III
The empire was already fracturing from within. ibid.
The First World War: the great powers of Europe had been waiting for an opportunity to pounce on the Ottomans’ lands. ibid.
He [Ataturk] had a vision of a new state rising from the ashes of the failed empire. ibid.
It was a social revolution of incredible proportions. ibid.
A global leader: an advanced highly organised state with a sophisticated culture and for its time tolerant of religious difference. ibid.
A European story and a Middle Eastern story. ibid.
Every holy city has a founding myth. Istanbul’s story begins with the legend of a sea voyage by a Greek king ... Byzas gave his name to the city he founded and the empire it ultimately became – Byzantium. Simon Sebag Montefiore, Byzantium: A Tale of Three Cities, BBC 2013
They called it the City of the World’s desire. ibid.
Many of the earliest remains date back to the 4th century A.D. when it was a Roman city. ibid.
Constantine was turning his back on Rome and betting everything on a faraway Greek fishing port. ibid.
Greek Constantinople became Turkish Istanbul. How the ancient capital of Christianity became the imperial city of Islam. Simon Sebag Montefiore, Byzantium: A Tale of Three Cities II
They called it the Great Schism: the moment Christianity split into two rival camps. ibid.
The Crusades really were an extraordinary and enormous movement of people: 80,000 in them. ibid.
Istanbul: the refuge of the world. ibid.
These are the gardens of the Topkapi palace of Istanbul, the imperial residence of the Sultans of the Ottoman empire. Simon Sebag Montefiore, Byzantium: A Tale of Three Cities III
By Suleiman’s time Istanbul had entered a golden age. ibid.
Tsar Nicholas I called the Ottoman’ empire ‘the sick man of Europe’. ibid.
On the eve of World War I, an estimated two million Armenians lived in the Ottoman’ empire. Well over a million were deported and hundreds of thousands were simply killed. Eliot Engel
In 1911, Turkey established gun control. From 1915 to 1917, 1.5 million Armenians, unable to defend themselves, were exterminated. Joe Wurzelbacher
Turkish syndicates control large parts of the heroin trade’s wholesale distribution and, in countries like Germany and Great Britain, much of the retail end as well. Misha Glenny, McMafia
I’m on a journey around Turkey. A land of beauty and extremes. A nation torn by conflict and division. With an increasingly authoritarian regime crushing opposition at home and abroad. Turkey is now at the very heart of global events. Turkey with Simon Reeve, BBC 2017
Modern Turkey was founded as a relatively liberal secular state. ibid.
Istanbul … six times the size of New York … home to sixteen million Turks. ibid.
‘When Erdogan told people to take to the streets we grabbed our flags, got on our motorbikes and took to the streets.’ ibid. Turk
Freedom of speech is taking a battering here. ibid.
Where conflict and division threatens to tear the county apart … In the volatile south I meet the Kurds singing a lament to oppression and conflict. Turkey with Simon Reeve II
Yoruks are Muslims but they generally don’t prey in Mosques. Turkey recently become more Islamic. ibid.
Mardin means fortresses … This really is such an ancient city … some of the earliest human settlements … ibid.
The Kurds have a proud history, culture, their own language but for decades they faced oppression at the hands of the Turkish state. ibid.
The military have long been seen as the defenders of Ataturk’s ideals; they’ve launched a series of coups particularly when they’ve thought a government has become too Islamic. ibid.
There are terrible things happening here. ibid.
A brilliant soldier, a revolutionary statesman, a man who joined his fate with the destiny of his nation. 1915 at Gallipoli he handed the British one of the most devastating defeats in their history. Ataturk: Founder of Modern Turkey, 1999
He founded and became the first president of the Republic of Turkey. ibid.
Stalin considered him a fascist; Hitler and Mussolini said he was a communist. ibid.
He turned the country into a police state and ruled with merciless authority for 33 years. ibid.
Under the increasing despotism of the Sultan, Mustafa Kemal [Ataturk] despised tyranny and became concerned with freedom and the ways to achieve it. He immersed himself in his military courses. ibid.
Despite Mustafa Kemal’s warnings, the Ottoman empire entered the war on the side of Germany and the Astro-Hungarian empire. ibid.
Mustafa Kemal decided to set the seeds of provincial government and opened a parliament in Ankara. ibid.
The Sultanate was abolished. ibid.
1923: The Proclamation of the Republic would be voted upon … with Mustafa Kemal [Ataturk] as its first president. ibid.
He persuaded the parliament to abolish the caliphate. ibid.
A wave of reforms to emancipate Turkish women. ibid.
Turkey has always been one of our top holiday destinations. But civil war in Syria has bought vices to its doorsteps … I’m here to find out how much tougher life is getting for women, and sex workers in particular. As the authorities crack down on a century of legalised prostitution. Stacey Dooley: Sex in Strange Places: Turkey, BBC 2016
The state even opened brothels. But under the tough new president Erdewan attitudes towards sex and sex workers are shifting and the brothels are being shut down. ibid.
1,500 licensed sex workers in Turkey, but there are 100,000 unregistered prostitutes who are even more powerless. ibid.
‘In Turkey today homosexuals are victims of killings.’ ibid. transgender campaigner
Eden: The original Biblical paradise … A prehistoric structure uncovered in Turkey has rocked the foundations of stone-age anthropology. Could the Bible’s oldest story actually be rooted in reality? Ancient Mysteries s2e8: The Garden of Eden, Channel 5 2017
Rocks protruding from the ground on a mound called Gobekli Tepe. ibid.
A 22-acre site composed entirely of circles built in stone. ibid.
I’m undercover in a nightclub in Istanbul and I’ve been slapped with a $1,000 bar tab. Scam City s1e7: Istanbul, National Geographic 2012
Boat tours here are a big draw. ibid.
Turkey: The Sultan made feeble efforts to reform in the period 1838-1875 but by the later date he was completely disillusioned with these efforts and shifted over to a policy of ruthless censorship and repression. This repression led at last to the so-called Young Turk rebellion of 1908. Carroll Quigley, Tragedy & Hope: A History of the World in Our Time ch4