![]() These imperial dreams have encouraged a disastrous neo-Ottoman foreign policy in the Middle East, a dangerous fusion of nationalism and Islamism. Hence all the jingoistic rhetoric in Turkey about “ our noble Ottoman ancestors”. A subjective way of reading the past, introduced from above, means the majority view triumphs over individuality and diversity. And where there is such lamentably poor memory, it is easier for the state’s selective memory to survive unquestioned. ![]() Memory is kept alive, through statues, signs and books, too. As you walk the streets of London, you come across countless plaques commemorating the people – composers, novelists, politicians – who lived in those buildings. Istanbul is a city of collective amnesia. ![]() Everything is written in water, except the works of the great architects, such as Sinan, which are written in stone and the lines of the great poets, such as Nazim Hikmet, which are learnt by heart. ![]()
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