Nowhere probably are the themes of cultural diversity and multiculturalism more prominently at display than in the recently flourishing literature on the Ottoman religious-ethnic communities in Turkey, wherein the Ottoman rule, particularly its so-called “golden age” between 15th -17th centuries, is romanticized as the epitome of cosmopolitanism and multicultural tolerance towards the “minorities”. According to many scholars of the Ottoman history, the period in question provides a perfect model of peaceful coexistence and belonging distinguished by an exemplary hospitality toward the other, be they Jews, Armenians or Greeks. As the paper discusses at length, the nostalgic remembrance of the cultural diversity of the golden age is not so much matters of historical interest, but rather symptomatic of the deep identity and “minority” crisis modern Turkey (along with many other “peripheral nationalisms”) is facing today: Armenian question, Kurdish question, Cyprus question, etc., all of which are imbricated with Turkey’s bid to join the European Union. This paper situates these vexing questions in the broader context of debates around citizenship, nationalism and multiculturalism. While doing so, it aims to show how the nostalgic narrative of the Ottoman tolerance, as a reactionary interpretation of the past, plays a significant role in the construction of Turkish and European identities and borders. Seen in these terms, the analysis of the nostalgic literature on the Ottoman peace can be very illuminating as to how the “Western/Occidental” and “Oriental/Peripheral” (i.e. the Ottoman and Turkish) formations of identity are constructed, remembered and contested in the past as well as today.