Istanbul (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9780985769567)

Russell C. Arslan The starting point for Russell Arslan's political and social progressive leanings developed growing up in southwest Los Angeles and graduating from the ethnically and racially diverse Dorsey High School. His academic achievements led to an advanced degree in international economics and a lifelong career in academia. At the early age of twenty he became a full time member of the Long Beach Community College instructional staff and six years later was employed as a full time adjunct member at California State University Long Beach where he retired from both institutions more than five decades later. During the course of his academic career, he was affiliated with the ACLU, the Club of Rome, The Western Economic Association, and worked with the Jimmy Carter administration. His economics and finance background guided his involvement in hotel and motel acquisitions, purchasing commercial and residential real estate and ownership of a financial institution. The academic and business career combination augmented by extensive international travels took him to more than one hundred-fifty countries, Mr. Arslan believes storytelling is a platform for expressing one's experiences and convictions. Events and historical facts are intertwined into story lines to entertain the reader. Writing a book and knowingly taking poetic license is like being an oral historian with the agenda of entertaining an audience. The purpose of his novels and the protagonist Matt Papaz is to entertain the reader in a fashion of reality and current events.