I have not yet read My Name is Red, but it's on the list. Birds Without Wings by Louis De Bernieres may not be written by a Turk, but it's a brilliant, evocative novel that covers the death of the Ottoman Empire viewed through the inhabitants of a tiny, isolated town in southern Turkey (not far from where I am right now, actually). It'll break your heart but it'll do it beautifully.

Anyway, that's my two cents... *wanders off*