I have spent almost 10 of the 15 years in Europe and I cannot begin to figure out what "right" means in European politics.One of the problems is that Europe has been infiltrated by non-Europeans to a great degree.  Such a degree in fact that non-Europeans have the ability to influence elections in some countries.

Isn't that the case everywhere to some extent? I mean don't the Armenians or mexicans influence the elections in California, and the Irish in Massachusets?I believe it's just an effect of globalization. Almost all nations have some sort of diaspora living abroad in other countries. And these people are usually more fanatical in their beliefs and defense of the "motherland". For example the nationalists in Turkey historically get anywhere between 5% to 15-16% of the votes at general elections. But in the voting done at the borders (by Turks living abroad) they get about 40%-50%. Adn you're also right about "right" not having the same meaning in europe as in the states. Again I'll give an example from Turkey so as not to make any mistake; in our political spectrum the CHP is the social democratioc party which calls itself "leftist" however has very strong pro-state and pro-establishment policies they are more conservative than the "rightists" and usually get their votes from well to do areas of the country. Whereas the right is more liberal, less idealogically and more economically driven, with the exception of the nationalists looks more favourably to EU and is more willing to talk to the other countries to resolve problems.

That's about right.The province highlighted in red is Edirne (Adrianople) As you can see it's like a safety valve that protects the straits from the west. As far as I know there are some remains of Adrian's walls there also.

The Seljuk's were Muslims however, they were non-Arab, which I think is the distinction you were trying to make.

That's right, the Sel?uk's were Turkish peoples who had migrated from the steppes of central Asia. And they actually created several different states one in Anatolia which I believe is called the Selcuklu Rum in English, there were also Sel?uk rulers in what is now Persia, Syria and Iraq. They are very important in Turkish history as Alparslan was the ruler who defeated the Byzantine's at Malazgirt (in modern day eastern Tukey) after the battle at Malazgirt the Byzantines never really recovered and as they fought amongst themselves the Turks moved westwords into Anatolia setting up chiefdoms here and there until Osman unified them and the Ottoman Empire was born.Similarly the success of the 1. Crusade can be attributed at least in part to the internal struggles within the Sel?uks. After Alparslan's death at 1072 Melik Şah became the ruler and he died on 1092. Subsequently the Seljuk empire dissolved into smaller, warring states, as Melik Şah's brother and four sons quarreled over the apportioning of the empire between themselves. Kılı? Arslan I re-established the Sultanate of Rum in Anatolia, and Tutuş I established himself in Syria. In Persia, Melik Şah was succeeded by his son Mahmut I whose reign was contested by his other three brothers.

Thank you to you both.I do intend to participate in discussions albeit of course more about the civilizations and time periods that I know something about. For starters I see that the Ottomans have been a little neglected on the site from what I can see so I'll start from my neck of the woods and work my way westward. I couldn't find one but I think it would be great to have some sort of today in history section in the site? It popped into my head while I was reading about the end of WW1 topic, today of course being Bastille day and also the day the second siege of Vienna by the Ottomans began.