Hikmet Sirlak cannot think of doing anything else in life other than selling carpets. “I have been living in this area since 1973 and I had to go through this street in the bazaar to go to school.

It's easy to see why Emperor Constantine founded his "New Rome" in A.D. 330 on the site of modern-day Istanbul. This geographic crossroads of Europe and Asia offered unparalleled advantages in ...