September 7, 2012

Ottoman Nostalgia Won't Save the Mideast

Alan Philps, The National

AP Photo

Remembering the good things about Ottoman rule serves as an example of where the modern Levant has gone wrong. But as a road map for the future, it is misleading. Every Lebanese knows that the great emigration towards the New World was prompted by the need to escape the poverty, hunger, underdevelopment, insecurity and army depredations of Ottoman rule.

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TAGGED: Lebanon, Middle East, Ottoman Empire, Turkey

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