Bizantium, Constantinopole, Istanbul - different names, but the city remains the same.
The last time I’ve seen people calling this city Constantinople (or Tzar-city, as Russian interpretation of the name) was in the 9th class. In the literature classes. When the poets were using old names of Istanbul just to get a proper rhythm in the poetry.
As it appeared for some of the Cypriots, they’ve got offended when I called the biggest Turkish city by name which is used since 15th century - Istanbul. I was told that in all Greek maps they use Constantinople as the only correct name for Istanbul.
That was a bit shocking for me. In other words, 15th century name stayed unchanged.
I’ve got few questions: is it just another example of anti-Turkish aggression, or they still use 15th century maps in geography classes? And if they use it, do they know that the Earth is not flat?..
December 6th, 2006 at 8:00 pm
I’ve been to Greece also as a Turkish businessman. I agree with your analysis but I have also observed the incredible similarity of patterns in culture, behaviour, perception and a significant number of words in the language.
It’s shocking that these two neighbourhood doesnt know eachother at all! But recently both are getting over it by some popsinger, basketball players, movies, tv series… by the language of art!
December 6th, 2006 at 10:39 pm
istanbulseven,
Thanks for visiting this blog, and writing few lines about this topic.
Yes, that’s true., especially having around 3 centuries of the common history, these countries still deny each other.
December 10th, 2006 at 6:02 pm
Constantinople is the Byzantium name of Istanbul. However, even before the 1453, Turks were calling that city as Istanbul like in today. They were just using Constantinople to describe the small area where the Byzantium Empire live, which is also the are where the Hagia Sophia is being on it today. On the other hand, Istanbul is not consisting of just from that small area, it’s a really huge city!
Because of some foreign people has insisted to use Constantinople for Istanbul in the past, in 1930, Ataturk declared that the official name of the city to the world one more time. The people who use the word of Constantinople today, think that they’ll get Istanbul back in one day, thats the only stupid reason
Hope that I could explain it clearly =)
December 10th, 2006 at 8:51 pm
Thanks Engin for the fully detailed explanation,
You really brought some light on this story!
These people still can’t get used to the fact that this city won’t become Constantinople. The history can’t be rolled back. For me, these nuances are a bit weird.