Really?

Istanbul is an old folksy name of Greek origin. The city was always called with more than one name, there were official and inofficial ways of talking about it. Read the first post in this thread and the article mentioned in it. Correct me if I am wrong, Adam25.

http://www.turkiyegazetesi.com/makaledetay.aspx?id=531426

Anadolu’nun has çiçeği: Lâle  

Light of Paradise, Nûr-i Adn, was the name of a tulip which won a prize in a tulip contest during the reign of Suleiman the Magnificient. It was grown by sheikh Ebussüüd Efendi who was the greatest religious scholar of the time and the Sultan’s personal friend. Tulips were the number one hobby of many important men of the era. The Ottomans were so keen on the beauty of these flowers that they cultivated different types of tulips and gave them pompouse names. Tulips symbolized the oneness of Allah. They were popular motifs in chinaware, textiles and mosaics.

Ottoman Empire was the homeland of tulips. Already in the 16^th century their onions were presented to Europeans:

İlk lâle soğanını, 1562‘de Alman diplomat Busbecq İstanbul’dan Viyana’ya götürdü. Avrupalılar bu çiçeğe hüsnü kabul gösterdiler. Adına da tulip dediler ki tülbentten gelir. Lâlenin seyahati Hollanda’ya uzandı. Çok renkli lâleler tutuldu. Amsterdam’da bir ev alabilecek paraya satıldı. The German diplomat Busbecq took the first tulip onions from Istanbul to Vienna. Europeans honored this flower. They called it ‘tulip’ after the name of a muslin cloth. The tulip’s journey reached Holland. Tulips with many colours came up. In Amsterdam they were sold for a price that could have bought a house.                                          

http://www.yeniasya.com.tr/2008/01/04/dizi/default.htm

Bir babanın yürek yangınları

Who knows what is on a man’s mind when he has his own son killed? This is what happened to Suleiman the Magnificient who fell into a trap set by his wife, his daugter and his son-in-law and ordered the 39-year-old crown prince Mustafa to be strangled on the plain of Ereğli in 1553.

Prince Mustafa was popular among the army and his death caused restlessness in the Empire. As a result prince Bayezid, the son of Suleiman and Hürrem and prince Selim’s only competitor left for the throne, made an action which by his father was interpreted as a betrayal. In spite of appealing to the Sultan it led him into exile and execution in Persia.

It was not the first time when Suleiman lost a child. Prince Mehmed had died of smallpox ten years earlier. They say his father took it hard. Șehzade Mosque in Istanbul was built in his memory. Prince Jihangir was born handicapped and he lost his life also at an early age.

Mehmet İpçioğlu, the writer of the article, describes the sorrow of the father after all these afflictions:

Topkapı Sarayının pencerelerden bakınca masal gibi bir hayat. Ah bir de içeriye girince, saadet denen şeyi yakalamaya hiçbir zaman gücü yetmemiş bir padişah görüyor insan, gerçekte. ‘It is a life that looks like a fairy tale when one looks at it through the windows of Topkapı Palace. But, oh, if you go inside you see a Sultan who in actual fact never was able to reach a thing called happiness.’

http://www.gazetekilis.com/tarih-2/sadrazam-sokullu-mehmet-pasanin-hayati-14605.html

http://tr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sokollu_Mehmed_Pa%C5%9Fa

Yavuz Sultan Selim’in saltanatının son yıllarında Balkanlar’dan devşirilen bir grup çocuk Edirne’ye getirildi. Bunların arasında Bosna’nın Sokoloviç Kasabası’ndan küçük bir çocuk da bulunmaktaydı. Zekâsı ile hemen dikkatleri çeken bu çocuk, kısa sürede herkesin takdirini kazanmış ve kendisiyle özel ilgilenilmeye başlanmıştı. In the last years of Selim I a group of children collected from Balkan area was brought to Edirne. Among the children was also a small child from the Sokolovici village of Bosnia. This child who immediately attracted notice for his intelligence won everyone’s appreciation and began to be given special attention.

Man Behind Three Sultans

According to research tall people often succeed professionally. Grand Vizier Sokollu Mehmet Pasha’s head wavered in the height of two metres. In addition it has been agreed by historians that he was the greatest sadrazam in the Ottoman Empire. His governmental career started in the service of Kanuni and lasted until the reign of Kanuni’s grandson Sultan Murad III. On many occasions he carried a huge responsibility. For instance, when Suleiman died from natural causes during the battle of Szigetvár in 1566 Sokollu kept the news a secret from the army for forty eight days until the late sultan’s follower Selim arrived to the scene. Suleiman’s offspring was not on his level of statesmanship which emphasized the role of the grand vizier during their reign. Sokollu Mehmet represented perpetuity in the empire.

Sokollu was originally a Serb. He was brought from a Bosnian village to Edirne to gain Janissary education. As a clever young man he soon gained attention and inavoidably moved upward in rank until the top of the state. At the same time he organized his income and became a very rich man. Even though born an orthodox the grand vizier was known as a righteous muslim. The article describes how Sokollu Mehmed died the way he had hoped for and gained martyrdom as a victim of assassination.

Sokollu Mehmed Pasha left many architecturally well known buildings both in Istanbul and elsewhere in Ottoman lands. Sokollu Mehmed Pasha mosque was planned by Mimar Sinan.

That is the life, fate and ethics of a "PRINCE".

When the issue is a question of the STATE, moral/ethical codes that a prince has to follow may differ considerably, from the ethical rules that your neighbor grocer has to follow in his daily life.

I wish this were my explanation of the problem; unfortunately it is not.

Anyone to guess who originally made a statement  very much like mine above ?

Greeks have given this city many names. One of them is "eis ten polin" in antique Greek which apparently evolved to "stin poli" in today´s Greek. Loosely translated, both mean "towards the cıty". The initial name for the city may have been EİSTENPOL, which later turned into İSTANBUL.

That the name İSTANBUL comes from İSLAMBOL is a city myth. That it may yet be changed from İstanbul to İslambol however, is unfortunalely a political reality today.

http://www.frmtr.com/tarih-ve-inkilap-tarihi/724275-sultan-ucuncu-murat-tarih.html

http://tr.wikipedia.org/wiki/III._Murad

Ûçüncü Murad

When we look at Murad III’s (reign 1574-95) acchievements in the light of numbers it looks like a success. The empire was in constant war against Iran and Austria and gained more land in North Africa also.

Sokullu Mehmed Paşa´nın ağırlığını hissettirdiği III. Murad döneminde, Osmanlı toprakları en geniş sınırlarına ulaştı. During the reign of Murad III which clearly showed Sokollu Mehmed Pasha’s significance the Ottoman land reached its maximum expansion.

They say Murad was a learned man with a compassionate character. He played a role in the post-reformation Christian Europe taking clearly the side of protestants. But he was not much of a statesman. The Sultan was an alcohol addict and during his reign he never bothered to leave Istanbul. Huge amount of money was put to his harems. He would have been in real trouble if he didn’t have a competent and loyal grand vizier. 

Devlet işlerini Sokullu´ya devreden Sultan Üçüncü Murad zamanında, sarayda kadınlar devlet işlerine çokça karışmaya başladılar ve bu durum Sokullu´nun ölümünden sonra da artarak devam etti. At the time of Sultan Murad III who transferred governmental tasks to Sokollu the women in the palace began to interfere a lot in state affairs. This continued and even proliferated after Sokullu’s death.

Btw, in the light of numbers…some sources say that Murad III had 103 children. 

Those interested  in the basic principles of Turkish nationalizm should be familiar with the concept of "Kızıl elma". The initiated should also know the deeper meaning of the concept.

"Kızıl Elma" seems to represent the highest Turkish ideal at any given point in history. It changes in years, depending on needs and desires of Turkish people at that specific point in history.

The rumor is that it was once Anatolia, than İstanbul and nowadays some Turkish nationalist believe it is ROME; whether they mean the Italian capital city of Rome or EU in a symbolic way, is not clear.

Do we have any well informed nationalists within the crew who can offer an explanation ?

There seems to be an article about Kızıl elma in Vikipedi but it is a sketch and seems to miss the subject anyway.