M. Süheyl Konuksay

  “That bitch Beatrice sent me, again. Follow me” said Virgil. So I went, of course. As we went down to Hell circle by circle I had the good fortune of meeting most of the presidents, prime ministers, kings, sultans and CEOs of the bygone days and happily chatted with them and but my guide was in a hurry. As we came to a place where molten lava was flowing over the bodies of the damned I noticed that the air was getting cooler every moment. In a very short while we were in a frozen wasteland, all the lava turned to super cold stone and icicles were everywhere. “Darn” said Virgil “It must be the Americans and Russians working together to make world a peaceful place”.

  Firstly the name of course. Who would have thought that a sailor and no less than an admiral could not read the map. Before Admiral Mahan  Alfred Thayer Mahan - Wikipedia  named the place Middle East everybody had a different name for the area and the residents there were living in peace and prosperity under the Turkish rule. That was around the end of 19. and beginning of 20. Century and had been going on for almost 400 years. (Please notice the number of zeros. We are talking about 400 years which is a very very long time and who knows how many generations) Well yes of course, there was some turbulence from time to time like maybe the Wahhabi uprising  Wahhabism - Wikipedia  in early 19. Century but that was really a minor thing at the time and I am sure that nobody in Istanbul knew who those guys on the gallows were. Ironic that members of the same family were hanged by one empire, made kings by another and took in as the minor partner of one of the biggest...