Tulips of Istanbul

Tulips are amazing flowers but the bad thing about them is that they don't last long. Istanbul, the biggest city of Turkey is well known by its tulips in the history. In 1718, the Ottoman Empire went into the Tulip Period which ended in 1730. In this period, the Ottoman high society was very much interested in tulips and luxury. These people had a very expensive lifestyle even the Ottoman Empire economy was suffering badly at that time. This period ended with a coup. The coup was made by the group of people who thought this expensive lifestyle was unnecessary in the bad times of Ottoman Economy. From that time, the symbol of Istanbul is tulip.

The Turkish economy has been suffering from external debt for a long time. The gross external debt of Turkey is around $250 billion in 2008. Since 2003, the municipality of Istanbul has been planting tulips everywhere in the city, which cost $ 675 million. And these tulips are without bulbs, so you cannot plant the same tulips next year. And when you see the amount of money spent in 5 years for tulips, you ask yourself why this money wasn't spend on schools, roads, factories, hospitals.

Even the historians cannot see, I think Turkey has gone into Tulip period again like the Ottoman Empire. And I wonder if this period will end with a coup or it will continue as the external debt grows.