Maddening, and hard not to see as the inherent sterility of mainstream Islam’s war on the beauty of Alevism…

Recent Posts

• My man: we cannot have Turkey's laws on France's ground February 20, 2020
• A view on the Catholic-Byzantine Florence Council that took place in the early 15th century in an attempt to save Constantinople from the Ottomans February 19, 2020
• Runciman on Greeks, Byzantines, Romioi, whichever…"The Greek has a subtle and difficult character, not to be recognized in the picture that popular students of the fifth century B.C. like to paint." February 17, 2020
• The Wire: Ah-haaa Mr. Modi; you give Pakistanis the balls and shamelessness to throw shade India's way on something like free speech… February 17, 2020
• Bufčansko: Macedonian dance February 16, 2020
• "…to stop eating MEAT, has a way of alienating us from our histories and our traditions and the people around us." February 16, 2020
• Yeah, Erdoğan, we get it. February 16, 2020
• Prince Dara Shikoh portrayed as a royal ascetic, Mughal India, circa 1640-55 February 9, 2020
• Maria Callas: "I belong to the givers…" February 9, 2020
• Nationalism = February 9, 2020
• греx: Андрей Рублëв — Андрей Тарковский February 8, 2020
• Montenegrins are such fair-weather Serbs it's ridiculous February 7, 2020
• Photos: some wild pics of Macedonian Albanians in Struga, 1954 February 7, 2020
• Photo: refugees — the grin on the other guy's face is priceless February 7, 2020
• Approximate Language/Identity Shift in Anatolia between 500BC – 1500 AD – interesting February 7, 2020
• How does Italy do it? February 6, 2020
• Photo: a funeral, somewhere, I presume, in rural Serbia February 6, 2020
• Bootstraps — AOC, mi pana fuelte February 5, 2020
• Lanthimos: about ten minutes into any of his films I need to go get a sweater February 5, 2020
• Abul Kalam Azad: "Our languages, our poetry, our literature, our culture, our art, our dress, our manners and customs, the innumerable happenings of our daily life…" February 5, 2020
• Mahua Moitra Excellent Speech February 5, 2020
• NYTimes: This is foul: Gandhi’s Killer Evokes Admiration as Never Before February 5, 2020
• Begum Akhtar and Agha Shahid Ali February 5, 2020
• Novak Djokovic IS NOT HUMAN! February 5, 2020
• A Serbian reader writes on an old Belgrade post: "I haven't seen any other English-language writer pull these elements together into such a compelling portrait of the city." — and Kami's photos February 4, 2020
• "Ottoman": final assessment; plus: the Notarades, and a "what-if" on our Turkish centuries February 3, 2020
• NY Times: a really painful opinion piece from Roger Cohen: "the simple joys and hopes which make life worth living." February 2, 2020
• February 2: Today is the Feast of the Presentation February 2, 2020
• Alex Shams: "a quick look across cultures reveals how Western norms that emphasise dark colors for men and consider adornment feminine is not by any means universal, but a product of European fashion trends in the 1700s" February 2, 2020
• You can take the boy out of Serbia… February 2, 2020
• Hannah Arendt: the implacable frenzy of the crowd January 31, 2020
• Are Turks really "Turks", are Greeks really "Greeks"…in case you've got some spare time to waste January 31, 2020
• Erdoğan: Did he really need a camo jacket to go into this meeting? January 31, 2020
• Delhi and Partition. Who knew this? I sure didn't. "A thread on how nearly 20,000 Muslims in Delhi were murdered within a few…" January 30, 2020
• Sergio Ramos, captain of Real Madrid: "Era un chiquillo de Osuna que quería ser torero" January 30, 2020
• Djok! January 30, 2020
• What is the State? January 30, 2020
• And the walls came tumbling down January 30, 2020
• "Ottoman": It's pretty good: understanding an opponent's mythology January 28, 2020
• Who has seen "Ottoman", the new Netflix series? January 27, 2020
• Hannah Arendt demolishes nationalism, or collectivity of any sort, in two minutes: "I've never loved any people or collective group." January 27, 2020
• TRT's "The Rum (Greek) community of Istanbul" January 27, 2020
• M. from Novi Sad: “The Building of Skadar” January 27, 2020
• "The Persians ruled for a thousand years…" January 26, 2020
• Photo: Sorry, this pic is priceless :) January 26, 2020
• Conversion Tweet #3 January 26, 2020
• From Ajam MC: Another loss to the process of Manhattan sterilization: Taste of Persia NYC closes January 26, 2020
• My new header image and the "conversion" twitter thread: when I feel the need to express my philosophical or aesthetic apprehensions about Islam I do so loud and clear… January 26, 2020
• Iran — The Return of the King? January 26, 2020
• Another much more coherent thread about Islam and conversion January 26, 2020
• Conversion in the Levant: a long twitter thread with, nevertheless, some interesting questions January 25, 2020
• New header image January 25, 2020
• Photo: Xanthe – İskeçe January 25, 2020
• Photo: P.S. Sifnos January 24, 2020
• Athens: güle güle Güllüoğlu January 24, 2020
• The imam must go; please help us January 24, 2020
• Anna Khachiyan January 24, 2020
• "Stanger's Guide": very cool (if pricey) travel site January 24, 2020
• The New Yorker's interview on Putin January 24, 2020
• Western culture January 22, 2020
• Belgrade joins world's most polluted cities as farmers torch fields January 22, 2020
• Sifnos: a couple in the beautiful local dress, and on one of Greece's most beautiful islands… January 22, 2020
• What nationalist nishtgutniks do when they don’t have anything else to do — which is almost always January 21, 2020
• Religious Minorities of Turkey January 20, 2020
• Another Teutonic digression… January 20, 2020
• RIP Les Amis, p.s. –Holy Shit, I totally left Chris Theodorou… January 20, 2020
• Maddening, and hard not to see as the inherent sterility of mainstream Islam’s war on the beauty of Alevism… January 20, 2020
• “As an Orthodox Christian…” & us and the West and Romans and Otto, the Habsburgs and a Balkan Afghanistan January 19, 2020
• Photos: Armenia January 19, 2020
• Epiphany: for the Old School school January 19, 2020
• “Dola Re Dola” … January 18, 2020
• RIP Les Amis – “The world is too small to contain my pain:” – The last bouzoukia in Astoria January 18, 2020
• Every state’s least favorite state January 18, 2020
• As Franz Josef once said, in all his Viennese fussiness, about the Hungarians: “It was terribly inopportune of these gentlemen to come and plant themselves here in the middle of Europe.” January 17, 2020
• Balkans and demographic decline January 17, 2020
• From Guardian: “Croatia has enchanting words for genitalia?” January 16, 2020
• President January 16, 2020
• Nole! – history will vindicate Serbia… January 13, 2020
• Tripe: FOOD!!! January 12, 2020
• Jordan Peterson: Watch this guy: January 11, 2020
• Word Press and photos: HELP January 10, 2020
• From the Guardian: Here’s what could be lost if Trump bombs Iran’s cultural treasures January 7, 2020
• “Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors:” Merry Christmas to Old Calendarists January 7, 2020
• Photo: Sushi in Holargos January 7, 2020
• Serbs: and sometimes you’re real assholes January 7, 2020
• Photo: “Una fazza, una razza:” — @KlairhA — hhhhmmm??? — I dunno January 7, 2020
• From Guardian: Boy, what a model of new-normal ethics and wokeness you Catalans are…such a burden… December 31, 2019
• Serbia detox December 28, 2019
• Oooooof abi, don’t you get tired? Part 2. (Mykonos 1956 photo) December 25, 2019
• Oooooof abi, don’t you get tired? Mykonos 1956 photo (more Stormfront) December 24, 2019
• Merry Christmas December 21, 2019
• Barcelona or Cancún? Startling how young Catalan independistas are… December 19, 2019
• Photo: Mykonos, 1956 December 19, 2019
• Dude…no joke December 4, 2019
• The Man December 4, 2019
• Photo: Armenia is beautiful November 28, 2019
• Photo: Athens’ opens beautiful modern mosaic exhibit November 28, 2019
• November 19th post: Who IS that in photo? Alison Miner, old time reader, writes; Tried to get snarky about covered Muslim women and turns out Orientalist joke’s on me: November 27, 2019
• Cavafy: Of Coloured Glass November 26, 2019
• Photo: Pollution in Delhi November 26, 2019
• Annakhachiyan: smart, babe… November 25, 2019
• I said it: one Chinese New Year 5 years ago — But what do they do now? November 25, 2019
• NYer: “Can Babies Learn to Love Vegetables?” November 19, 2019
• What is this a photo of? November 19, 2019
• WHAT?! They’ve lost it…like completely November 18, 2019
• And while we’re on pork, here’s for the glutenophobic November 18, 2019
• I don’t necessarily think I’m against the changing of former churches that had become mosques then museums and then back into mosques again if they weren’t going to be churches again: but I didn’t know, like in the case of the Savior in the Chora in C-Town, that reusing a mosque would necessitate covering up the artwork… See more soon. November 16, 2019
• Jiannena Jew, Romans, Romaniotes, Romioi and us November 16, 2019
• “Bre haydi S*KTIR” — it unites us in the Jadde world — And an à propos use and PERFECT!!! güle-güle for Turkey’s Presidential state visit: — Βρε χάιντε και γαμήσου — The I had thought the most common such word was HAYDI! November 15, 2019
• Why do US elected leaders have to accept this behavior from a thug? @salamamoussa November 15, 2019
• NYer: “After Six Decades, Turkey Is Now a U.S. Ally in Name Only” — then why is it still treated as one; what does treating a country as an enemy look like? November 14, 2019
• “Recep Bey Goes to Washington” — MOTHER FUCKER FUCKING TURKEY!!! — Why not forget the EU and just join NAFTA instead? November 14, 2019
• Nationalism: just something I like to repost now and then November 14, 2019
• Prečani Serbs: I thought this passage from a previous post should also be posted separately November 14, 2019
• Yugoslavia, King Aleksandar and the Карађорђевићи/Karađorđevići, addendum — and a digression about Serbian slava celebrations November 14, 2019
• Archaic torso of Apollo — a favorite Rilke poem that also came to mind with “the Greekest image” post November 13, 2019
• The full Nietzsche quote from “the Greekest image” post November 13, 2019
• Venice floods, worst in decades November 13, 2019
• Yugoslavia: Yeah, you found a very cool stamp. Do you have any clue what it means? November 12, 2019
• This is horrendous: I knew he was diabolical but not the Devil himself November 12, 2019
• Another party I’d like to crash November 12, 2019
• This is perhaps the Greekest image I have ever seen. November 12, 2019
• X. doesn’t like my post on “The insufferable entitledness of bikers” — or lots of other things I’ve written November 12, 2019
• Who knew the Andrews Sisters were Greek-American from Minnesota? November 12, 2019
• Jadde’s homepage photo: Sergei Paradzhanov November 12, 2019
• Sad: “Exchange of populations in the 1920s.” November 12, 2019
• My buddy M. from Novi Sad writes: “You clueless Frangoi with your Pierre-Loti infatuation with Istanbul…” November 12, 2019
• The “comforting illusion” of India November 11, 2019
• You clueless Frangoi with your Pierre-Loti infatuation with Istanbul… November 10, 2019
• Greek assholes: Anti-migrant pork-and-alcohol BBQ held near Diavata refugee camp November 10, 2019
• Photo: Babri Masjid? Did it ever look like this or is photo caption a mistake. November 10, 2019
• Macron: «᾽Ιδού ὁ νυμφίος ἔρχεται…» Not happy with his Balkan policy, but he’s the only man on the world political landscape today with anything even remotely resembling a redeeming vision. November 10, 2019
• Rezili — Greek volunteer thugs in 1990s Bosnia November 10, 2019
• Novak Djokovic piles pressure on Rafael Nadal at ATP Finals November 10, 2019
• Guardian: “Catalonia’s separatists were jailed for sedition, but brought down by hubris” — Giles Tremlett November 10, 2019
• Guardian: “As prime minister, I refuse to let Catalan separatists undermine Spanish democracy” – Pedro Sánchez November 10, 2019
• From Alex Shams @seyyedreza: 70 years after Partition, still so many walls to be torn down November 10, 2019
• The insufferable entitledness of bikers November 10, 2019
• Murtaza Mohammad Hussein on pre-revolutionary Russia and contemporary South Asia November 9, 2019
• Photo: Babri Masjid c. 1890 November 9, 2019
• Babri Masjid: what an expected, but no less infuriating, outrage! November 9, 2019
• NYT: Europeans Bewildered as Trump Stomps Off November 8, 2019
• From New York Times: Timothy Egan — Wokeness November 8, 2019
• Damn, I’d love to crash this party November 7, 2019
• Yiddish: How ‘delicious…’ November 5, 2019
• Constantinople — period unknown — streets and paths of Beyoğlu November 4, 2019
• Twenty years later: The Men Who Still Love “Fight Club” — and Adam Driver: “What do you mean, ‘toxic masculinity’?” he asked. November 4, 2019
• Empire: “We cannot destroy it without destroying ourselves.” November 4, 2019
• Erdoğan will send ISIS prisoners back to Europe November 4, 2019
• Photos: Iason Athanasiadis, II November 4, 2019