My First Thoughts of Turkey Turned To Old Horror Film, 'Midnight Express'

Thus began my 'crash course' in Turkish/Ottoman studies

After receiving Lucia’s initial emails from central Anatolia, I finally faced an impending reality. “So this is really happening! What do I really know about Turkey??” Like most Americans, I was pretty ignorant of Turkey and the Middle East. My sharpest cultural memory of Turkey was the horror movie, “Midnight Express,” directed by Oliver Stone and base…