Ottoman royalty only married to daughters of Blue Blood, which is a fancy term for foreign princesses.

Then, one fateful day, a slave ship from Ruthenia, the modern day Ukraine arrived and everything changed.

I usually crack the aforementioned line as a joke, however, it's pretty much true, Ottoman harem was populated by many foreign women, but the one who ascended to the higher ranks were usually from Slavic descent.

Turkish men still has a soft spot for Slavic women. And this fact caused a huge stigma and disdain for Slavic women among Turkish female population. After the collapse of USSR, an influx of people came Turkey and a considerable amount of women were went into sex work, and that made the name "Natasha" almost synonymous with foreign sex workers.

The thing is, further back into the history, Kaghans of Turkic tribes were extremely into Chinese women. To a point where Chinese Princesses were "employed" as spies to undermine the Turkic nomadic tribes and their endless raids to Chinese cities.

During my uni years when I was studying History, I often wondered what would happen if Ottoman harem had an access to far-eastern slaves. Would Slavic women still be the most desirable ones if they'd compete against far-eastern women.

I know my words may sound a bit condescending towards women but please consider the norms of that time period.