Pax Ottomanica?

You know that something strange is happening when the usual crew of neocon critics takes out after Turkey – yes, Turkey! – a country that, as Inter Press Service’s Jim Lobe points out, they long cultivated and supported as a key ally and supposedly model democracy in the Islamic world. Of course, that was then. … Continue reading “Pax Ottomanica?”

Ironic Intervention: A Lebanese Doughboy in World War I

In 1914 Michael Zataney, born in the village of Zgharta in what is now Lebanon, lived in Birmingham, Ala., and looked forward to becoming an American citizen. The Zataney family left what geographers call "Greater Syria" to escape the oppression of the Ottoman Turks who had ruled the area for 400 years. Culturally diverse and … Continue reading “Ironic Intervention: A Lebanese Doughboy in World War I”