This week, after my italic introduction, a prominent Turkish intellectual Dr Cengiz Aktar shares his encounter with the Oxford Union and his regret over the Ottoman Empire’s demise.
Reading Dr Aktar's lecture-transcript was illuminating! Historically it seems to be the case (not only in Turkey and the Middle East) that syncretism and generally the chance to cultural exchanges, as much as practised cosmopolitanism are much more beneficial to help creating peaceful, richly interwoven and thus more resilient units than the artificially constructed, strangely homogenous state (religious) entities we are still dealing with to date. Very interesting indeed, thank you very much for sharing this with us, dear Ezgi!
Reading Dr Aktar's lecture-transcript was illuminating! Historically it seems to be the case (not only in Turkey and the Middle East) that syncretism and generally the chance to cultural exchanges, as much as practised cosmopolitanism are much more beneficial to help creating peaceful, richly interwoven and thus more resilient units than the artificially constructed, strangely homogenous state (religious) entities we are still dealing with to date. Very interesting indeed, thank you very much for sharing this with us, dear Ezgi!