NEW YORK/ISTANBUL -- With a top shaped like a tulip, one of the symbols of the Ottoman Empire, the skyscraper at 821 United Nations Plaza symbolizes Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's ambition to regain past glory. In campaign speeches he has put his aim even more bluntly: "making Turkey great again."
The $300 million Turkish House, fit with a three-bedroom presidential suite for Erdogan on the top floor, opened in September across from the United Nations headquarters in New York, a salon from which global influence can be arranged.