ABSTRACT
In late November 1991, a letter from Madrid came to the office of Turgut Özal, who was then President of Turkey. As we know, all around the world people shower powerful individuals and institutions with letters, attempting to solve their private problems. We also know that a majority of such letters do not even end up in the archives. On their way to the recipient, the hardworking secretaries’ hands redirect them to a wastebasket or to other officers in charge. But Özal’s sender was not just an ordinary citizen suffering injustice. Next to his name—Alexei II—there was a whole range of surnames from history textbooks. This may have inspired the President’s secretaries to at least read it.
