In his 1915 travelogue, "Constantinople and Istanbul Old and New," H.G. Meanwhile, in languages other than Turkish, the city remained universally known as Constantinople. ABOVE: Map from Wikimedia Commons showing the borders of Turkey as defined by the Treaty of Lausanne in 1923. As far as I know -as Turk, born and raised in Turkey-, I only witness (in school, movies, social life, etc.) The word Hippodrome came from the Greek terms hippos and dromos. Looks like the site is more popular than we thought! Central to the Megali Idea was the notion that Constantinople was the rightful capital of Greece and that it needed to be reclaimed from the Turkish occupiers. After a whirlwind trip through Western Europe (see pictures here), I was lucky enough to have a little over 2 days back in Istanbul again. The story involves a single city with a half dozen different names, a dozen different kings with the same name, World War I, and an especially vicious Barbary macaque. Ultimately, the Balkan League won and, on 30 May 1913, the countries involved in the war signed the Treaty of London, which gave both the island of Krete and the region of Makedonia to Greece. The catastrophe at Smyrna was so devastating for Greek morale that, on 27 September 1922, King Konstantinos I abdicated the throne to his eldest son Georgios II. The contributor also avers that in the 23 years from 1930 to 1953 the stir was long forgotten. As his first task, ... designed and hosted by local city experts. Finally, on 29 May 1453, Constantinople was conquered by the Ottoman Turks under the leadership of Sultan Mehmed II. This is the name that is used on Ottoman coins and that is used in most official documents. By the 11th century with the Christian schism between Roman Catholic Rome and Greek Orthodox Constantinople the Byzantines adopted their current identity. On 11 June 1917, under domestic pressure from the Venizelist faction within Greece and foreign pressure from Britain and France, Konstantinos stepped down and fled the country along with his oldest son Georgios. For a few months, it looked as though the Greeks were maybe going to win. I put a lot of time into writing it and I’m glad you appreciate my work! Further to Arab conquests of the 7th centruy whcih deprived the Eastern Roman empire of much of its territories in North Africa, Egypt and Syria-Palestine the Byzantines started identifying fully with Greek Christian Orthodox civilization rather the Roman Catholic one which was based on the Latin language . report. This included the island of Krete, the region of Makedonia in what is now northern mainland Greece, the region of Thrake in what is now eastern mainland Greece and the western, European part of Turkey, and the entire west coast of Asia Minor. In April 1897, the ethnically Greek inhabitants of the island of Krete rebelled against Ottoman rule, seeking union with Greece. Nowadays, although many Greek people still feel a very strong attachment to the city of İstanbul, there are very few Greek people who would seriously support the idea of Greece trying to “reclaim” it. That would certainly be remarkable—hardly even a generation—and the name Istanbul was still not fully accepted in Western circles; Constantinople … //]]>. Please enable Cookies and reload the page. On 18 March 1913, while the war was still ongoing, Konstantinos—the same crown prince who had led the Greek forces in the Greco-Turkish War of 1897—became the king of Greece. Reply. No, those harmonious quotes aren’t by me, but part of the song ‘Istanbul’ by the rock band ‘They Might Be Giants’. By around the ninth century AD, whenever someone in the area around Constantinople wanted to say that they were going to Constantinople, they would simply use the Greek phrase εἰς τὴν Πόλιν (eis tḕn Pólin), which means “into the City,” since everyone knew that, when they said “the City,” they meant Constantinople. Dear Spencer, About 40 odd years ago I studied Classics at university and it has always remained a subject of enormous fascination to me although in my later years I have indulged my passion for the Roman Republic and rather neglected the rest. ... “All the girls from Constantinople are in Istanbul (not … Turkish governments have not always respected the treaties they signed and still now try creating issues… and I am using VERY mild language. In response to the prospect of this treaty being ratified, in April 1920, the Turkish National Movement established the Turkish Grand National Assembly in Ankara and declared their separation from the Ottoman government. İstanbul was the common name for the city in normal speech in Turkish even before the conquest of 1453, [ citation needed ] but in official use by the Ottoman authorities other names, such as Kostantiniyye , were preferred in certain contexts. "http":"https";t.getElementById(r)||(n=t.createElement(e),n.id=r,n.src=i+"://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js",s.parentNode.insertBefore(n,s))}(document,"script","twitter-wjs"); Constantinople was the last stronghold of the Roman Empire. This is more out of tradition and force of habit than out of irredentism. Photochroms from the Library of Congress (you’ll have to supply your own tunes! Greece is without THEIR major city. Imagine if New York City were instead named Osama bin Laden City. Now its Istanbul, not Constantinople Been a long time gone, Constantinople Now its Turkish delight on a moonlit night Every gal in Constantinople Lives in Istanbul, not Constantinople So if youve a date in Constantinople Shell be waiting in Istanbul Even old New York was once New Amsterdam Why they changed it I cant say People just liked it better that way So take me back to Constantinople Dwight writes, "Constantinople is a compromise, therefore, and not always a successful one, between north and south. "Istanbul was Constantinople, now it's both of Istanbul and Constantinople" Bug. Then, in 330 AD, the Roman emperor Constantine I made Byzantion into the new capital of the Roman Empire and renamed it Nova Roma, which means “New Rome” in Latin. I don’t think it has anything to do with a plot by Germans to make the fall of Rome in the 5th century more important thna the conquest of Constantinople in the 15th century. To answer your questions there are 2 things to consider. Sometime around 657 BC, though, a group of colonists from the Greek city-state of Megara came along and founded the city of Βυζάντιον (Byzántion) on the site. When I was in seventh grade social studies class, we learned about how the city of Constantinople is now known as İstanbul. Then, on 23 August, the Greek and Turkish forces confronted in the Battle of Sakarya, which went on for twenty-one days. On 15 May 1919, approximately twenty thousand Greek soldiers landed in Smyrna, a city on the western coast of Asia Minor where ethnic Greeks probably made up a bare majority of the population, and promptly seized control of the city. Over the course of the years following the conquest, the Ottomans remade Constantinople into their new capital. While most modern Western languages have adopted the name Istanbul for the city, other languages still use different traditional names. Under this new treaty, Turkey retained control over all of Asia Minor, as well as control over Constantinople and Eastern Thrake. ABOVE: Aggrandized painting of King Konstantinos I of Greece on horseback during the Second Balkan War. Enter your email address to subscribe to Tales of Times Forgotten and receive notifications of new posts by email. I am Spencer Alexander McDaniel. We're going to send you on your way in just a sec. It fell to the Roman Republic in 196 BC, and was known as Byzantium in Latin until 330, when the city, soon renamed as … Your email address will not be published. Well… not really. I will continue to follow and enjoy your posts and thank you for shining such a bright light in the midst of so much dross online! I read this with great interest. Now it’s Istanbul, not Constantinople. An international zone known as the “Zone of the Straits” would include the entire region around the Sea of Marmara, including the city of Constantinople. On 4 October 1923, the last Allied forces left the city of Constantinople and, on 6 October, Turkish forces entered the city with a triumphal ceremony. Hippos means horse, while dromos means way. The back and forth exchanges between the two singers is a twist not found on the Four Lads version. Was the “Green Man” Really an Ancient Pagan Deity? The new Kemalist government requested all foreign countries to stop using the name Constantinople and instead begin using the Turkish name İstanbul. On 13 November 1918, the Allied forces of the United Kingdom, France, Italy, and Greece began occupying the city of Constantinople. Greeks colonised the area and established the city of Byzantion in the 7th century BC. In fact, for thousands of years, Asia Minor was predominantly culturally Greek. Kind Regards, You say “Greek invaders” but in reality the Greeks have been living there for centuries if not millennia. Why did they do this? At that time emperor Mauricius decided that Greek woudl become the offcial language of the Eastern Roman empire in lieu of Latin reflecting the fact that the majority of the population of that empiren spoke Greek rather than Latin. At this point, a bizarre freak accident intervened in the course of history. When I was in seventh grade social studies class, we learned about how the city of Constantinople is now known as İstanbul. Hello! Traditionally the Roman Empire was centred aroud the city of Rome which is why until the empire was administratively divided into two subsets at the end of the 4th century AD. On a moonlight night – Jimmy Kennedy (Four Lads). By April 1920, a treaty was beginning to take shape between the official government of the Ottoman Empire and the Allied Powers, known as the Treaty of Sèvres, which would have imposed far harsher conditions on the Ottoman Empire than had already been imposed on the German Empire. Its essential ideology was that the Turkish homeland was under threat and that the Ottoman government in Constantinople was neither willing nor able to protect the homeland, so there needed to be a new government. Istanbul (Not Constantinople) Lyrics: Istanbul was Constantinople / Now it's Istanbul, not Constantinople / Been a long time gone, Constantinople / Now The name eventually passed from Arabic into Turkish, becoming a common vernacular name for the city. For instance, as I discuss in this article from August 2020, they famously converted the Hagia Sophia, which had originally been constructed in the sixth century AD as a Christian church, into a mosque. Indeed, as I discuss in the article, there was still a very large number of Greek civilians living in western Asia Minor before the Greek military landed at Smyrna on 15 May 1919. Your email address will not be published. one thing of major importance is that Istanbul is STILL the seat of the Orthodox Patriarchate, where the Orthodox Patriarch is the “primus inter paris” amongst all other patriarchs (Jerusalem, Alexandria, Moscow etc). Istanbul was Constantinople Now it's Istanbul, not Constantinople Been a long time gone, Constantinople Now it's Turkish delight on a moonlit night Every gal in Constantinople Lives in Istanbul, not Constantinople So if you've a date in Constantinople She'll be waiting in Istanbul Even old New York was once New Amsterdam Why they changed it I can't say Now it’s Istanbul, not Constantinople Been a long time gone, Constantinople Now it’s Turkish Delight on a moonlit night. On 1 November 1922, the Grand National Assembly of Turkey declared that the Ottoman state was abolished and that a new era in Turkish history had begun. What Is the Correct Pronunciation of “Gyro”. I suspect that a substantial number of people living in the regions that proponents of the Megali Idea wanted to claim for Greece didn’t really want to be ruled by Greece. Imagine Italy without Rome, France without Paris, England without London, USA without New York……………. To make sure none of us ever forgot that Constantinople is İstanbul, my teacher played us the song “Istanbul (Not Constantinople),” which was originally written in 1953 by Jimmy Kennedy and Nat Simon, but is best known today from a cover released in 1990 by the alternative rock band They Might Be Giants. Now it's Istanbul not Constantinople Been a long time gone Old Constantinople's still has Turkish delight On a moonlight night Every gal in Constantinople Is a Miss-stanbul, not Constantinople So if you've date in Constantinople She'll be waiting in Istanbul Even old New York was once New Amsterdam Why they changed it, I can't say (People just liked it better that way) 2.1k. This marked the beginning of a new Greco-Turkish War. It quickly became the largest city in the empire. Personally, I would prefer the historical and religious significance of the Hagia Sofia to be enjoyed by all, but of course that is really up to the Turkish government now, isn’t it? Largely response to these occupations, a new movement known as the Turkish National Movement began to form. 3 months ago "Istanbul was Constantinople, now it's both of Istanbul and Constantinople" Bug. It’s an idea that occasionally pops up among right-wing extremists, but has otherwise disappeared from political discourse. In case you’ve never heard it, here’s a video with the song on YouTube: One thing my seventh grade social studies teacher never explained, though, is the reason why Constantinople is now known as İstanbul. He died on 25 October. The city of İstanbul has had many different names over the years. It’s not just because “people liked it better that way”; there are actually a number of complex and fascinating political reasons why the name was changed. Russian history and so this very informative article has been useful in pointing me to the background informing the Russian historical obsession with that city, the heart and emblem of that country’s orthodox faith. to the name of Byzantion but not the Rome (or New/Nevo/East Rome) for the term of Rome. So I can’t find the answer to; “Why modern Turkey’s national records, in schools, history books, tv programs, etc. Today, he is generally known as Konstantinos I of Greece, but, as I discuss in this article from July 2019, he actually preferred to style himself as Konstantinos XII, because he considered all the Roman emperors named “Constantine” to be his forebears. "In this instance, Dwight speaks of the jarring weather in the city, which blends the climate of regions to the north and south.. Furthermore, Greek, Italian, and French “zones of influence” would be carved out of what is now western Turkey and a “Kurdish region” would be established in southeastern Turkey. In order to understand why İstanbul became the official name of Constantinople, we need to talk a little bit about Greek irredentism and the relationship between Greece and the Ottoman Empire in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. //