![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/06\/istanbul-dawn.jpg\" "\\"istanbul-dawn\\"")
<\/p>\nBy MAZEN HAYEK<\/p>\n
Al Arabiya<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Well, I\u2019m wrapping up things as I prepare myself to travel to Istanbul tomorrow: can\u2019t wait! Obviously, many ideas come to mind ahead of this trip, namely, and in no particular order of importance:<\/p>\n
The Ottoman Empire and Turkish nationalism;<\/p>\n
Kemal Ataturk and the embodiment of the secular state;<\/p>\n
The recent official Turkish stance on democracy, openness and liberties in Syria, not to mention today\u2019s Syrian opposition conference on the Turkish soil;<\/p>\n
The forceful Turkish position on Israel at the time of the \u201cFreedom Flotilla\u201d and the diplomatic incident it created;<\/p>\n
The relations between the Greek and the Turkish states marked by alternating periods of mutual hostility and reconciliation over Cyprus;<\/p>\n
The deaths of up to 1.5 million Armenians during World War I;<\/p>\n
The US-Turkey relationship which continues to grow in strategic importance;<\/p>\n
Turkey\u2019s European Union membership, in addition to its active role in the UN, NATO and tens of other global organizations: a truly understated regional Superpower (not fully understood by its neighbors!);<\/p>\n
Moderate Islam in Turkey and its \u201cfranchise\u201d export potential;<\/p>\n
Turkey\u2019s \u201cEast meets West\u201d mantra, where divine religions live together in peace and harmony;<\/p>\n
The Turkish government\u2019s lifting of visa requirements for Arabs and Middle Easterners to engage them more in Turkey\u2019s lifestyle, culture and way of doing business;<\/p>\n
The fate of the Kurdish people and their imprisoned Kurdish fighter Abdulla Ogalan;<\/p>\n
Bilingualism or Trilingualism: will they gain more ground in Turkey one day?<\/p>\n
The interruptive Turkish Tourism TV Spots, print ads and outdoor signs everywhere;<\/p>\n
\u201cTurkish Delights,\u201d savory cuisine, stunning mansions and breathtaking scenery;<\/p>\n
Turkish soaps dubbed into Arabic, and aired on the Middle East region\u2019s leading SatCaster MBC\u2026 on top of which came “G\u00fcm\u00fc\u015f” or \u201cNoor\u201d (in Arabic), a Turkish melodrama originally broadcast in Turkey by Kanal D, featuring Song\u00fcl \u00d6den & K\u0131van\u00e7 Tatl\u0131tu\u011f — who both took the Arab world by storm. When it\u2019s love it never varies;<\/p>\n
Turkey-based \u201ctweets\u201d and fellow Turkish \u201ctwitter-ers\u201d!<\/p>\n
And last but not least, the impeccable Emirates Airline, which will fly me there! (one day will come when I\u2019ll probably fly Turkish Airlines);<\/p>\n
And, and, and\u2026 how can I forget the hotel overlooking the Bosphorus — part of the boundary between Europe and Asia – where I\u2019ll be staying?!<\/p>\n
(Mazen Hayek of Al Arabiya can be reached at:<\/p>\n
hayekmg@gmail.com (twitter: @HayekMG). He welcomes comments and re-Tweets)<\/p>\n
via Free Blog \/ Mazen Hayek: From Dubai to Istanbul.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By MAZEN HAYEK Al Arabiya Well, I\u2019m wrapping up things as I prepare myself to travel to Istanbul tomorrow: can\u2019t wait! Obviously, many ideas come to mind ahead of this trip, namely, and in no particular order of importance: The Ottoman Empire and Turkish nationalism; Kemal Ataturk and the embodiment of the secular state; The […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":83,"featured_media":34866,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1094],"tags":[102,3820],"class_list":["post-34864","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-tourism","tag-istanbul","tag-travel-turkey"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34864","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/83"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34864"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34864\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34866"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34864"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34864"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34864"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}