At the very least they should be shat on for having one of the most evil empires of all time that, unlike fascists, communists, and Imperial Japan, lasted centuries. Dracula did nothing wrong to Turkroach invaders. "Historically oppressed minority" my ass.
Unpopular opinion, but the Ottoman Empire was the continuation of the Roman Empire. For all practical purposes, the fall of Constantinople in 1453 was just a dynastical change. The Roman Empire had already changed religion and language multiple times before the Ottoman takeover. Interestingly, the Ottomans of the 17th century called themselves "Rum", meaning Roman, something which was used by most Christian subjects as well, "Turk" was considered derogatory and was used only for Anatolian peasants (which revolted several times in Ottoman history against the Ottoman elite which was composed of Balkan Muslim converts). The idea of a Turkish nation started appearing only after the rise of Romantic Nationalism in Europe and the ethnic revolutions it triggered, of course, Ottomanism was an attempt to counter this by recreating a universal Ottoman identity, but its implementation was grossly botched by the Young Turks who degenerated into Islamic and Turanist fanaticism. Funnily, the Ottoman Empire of the 16th and 17th centuries would be a safer place for a European Catholic or Protestant than most European nations which experienced extreme religious violence. For example, France lost 1/5th of its populace in its Wars of Religion, and Germany lost 1/3rd of its population from the Thirty Years' War.
While Vlad the Impaler was an amusing personality, he got his ass kicked by an even better Turk-slayer, Mathias Corvinus, son of John Hunyadi, and King of Hungary. He was the most powerful European sovereign of his time and the only one who possessed an army (the famous Black Army of Hungary) capable of stoping the Ottomans.
Of course, it is ridiculous of Turks claiming to be a "historically oppressed minority" when the empire that they claim to be successors of, had one of the most prolific slave trade networks and practised imperialism on levels comparable to those of ancient Rome.
