Constantinople or Istanbul what do you call it?

[Baltenstein]

It's part of our history and our Greek pride! Like Alexander The Great. He was one man and no one questions why we are so hungup about him and he was only man whilst this was an entire city. Plus, it is a religious place for us!

Russia has far more Orthodox heritage centers.

Hardly surprising considering it's...the largest country in the world!?

[Farnhamia]

What is it with you greek people and your hangup on the damn ancient past?

It's part of our history and our Greek pride! Like Alexander The Great. He was one man and no one questions why we are so hungup about him and he was only man whilst this was an entire city. Plus, it is a religious place for us!

Alexander was a Macedonian. A great many Greeks at the time weren't entirely sure the Macedonians were really Greek. Too many Illyrians and Thracians and Paionians and Epirotes and what-not wandering around, you know.

[Ceannairceach]

I have always and will always call it Constantinople. Byzantium will rise again my brothers!

Byzantium will NEVER rise because no one calls it that any more. Constantinople, however WILL

Historians refer to it as Byzantium every now and then. It is also an alternative name to "Byzantine Empire", though I prefer Imperium Romanum.

[Ceannairceach]

Russia has far more Orthodox heritage centers.

Hardly surprising considering it's...the largest country in the world!?

...That doesn't really matter. Its the largest nation, but it doesn't have the most Anglican churches, does it?

[Nanatsu no Tsuki]

I have always and will always call it Constantinople. Byzantium will rise again my brothers!

Byzantium will NEVER rise because no one calls it that any more. Constantinople, however WILL

Constantinople ceased to exists a while ago.

[United Mercenary Firms]

Actually, a lot of people credit the Turks with the fall of Constantinople--but it was really the Latin, Frankish, and Norman Crusaders from Catholic Christendom which shattered the empire and hurled it to an early end.

The Byzantine Empire was struck its death blow in 1204, not 1453. 1453 was really more of an aftershock. By the year 1398, there were Western Europeans in places as far away as the British Isles which were already observing that the empire was doomed.

[Baltenstein]

I have always and will always call it Constantinople. Byzantium will rise again my brothers!

Byzantium will NEVER rise because no one calls it that any more. Constantinople, however WILL

Dude, are you insane? There's like 5000 orthodox Greeks left in the city! It would be enough if the Turks would stop to harass them and His Holiness, the Patriarch.

[Andaluciae]

What is it with you greek people and your hangup on the damn ancient past?

It's part of our history and our Greek pride! Like Alexander The Great. He was one man and no one questions why we are so hungup about him and he was only man whilst this was an entire city. Plus, it is a religious place for us!

Exactly. It's Greek history. Of course, it's also Turkish history, not to mention, Turkish present. I feel like the Turkish present strongly outweighs the long distant Greek past.

[Kalaspia-Shimarata]

Byzantium will NEVER rise because no one calls it that any more. Constantinople, however WILL

Constantinople ceased to exists a while ago.

I know that because it became Turkish. When Greece wins it back, it'll be called Constantinople again

[RomeW]

It's part of our history and our Greek pride! Like Alexander The Great. He was one man and no one questions why we are so hungup about him and he was only man whilst this was an entire city. Plus, it is a religious place for us!

Alexander was a Macedonian. A great many Greeks at the time weren't entirely sure the Macedonians were really Greek. Too many Illyrians and Thracians and Paionians and Epirotes and what-not wandering around, you know.

That's true, though ancient Macedon doesn't have anything to do with contemporary Macedonia.

[Nanatsu no Tsuki]

Constantinople ceased to exists a while ago.

I know that because it became Turkish. When Greece wins it back, it'll be called Constantinople again

Either you're fishing for jokes or you live in Lala Land.

[Baltenstein]

Hardly surprising considering it's...the largest country in the world!?

...That doesn't really matter. Its the largest nation, but it doesn't have the most Anglican churches, does it?

Maybe because Russia is an Orthodox nation?

The fact that an Orthodox country of 140 mio. has more Orthodox sites than an Orthodox country of 11 mio. still doesn't strike as particulary odd.

[Andaluciae]

Constantinople ceased to exists a while ago.

I know that because it became Turkish. When Greece wins it back, it'll be called Constantinople again

Even though Greece and Turkey are both allies?

[Threlizdun]

It's part of Turkey now. It's been hundreds of years since the Turks conquered Constantinople, so I would definately call it theirs. For such reasons, I believe Istanbul is the most accurate and respectful.

[Baltenstein]

I know that because it became Turkish. When Greece wins it back, it'll be called Constantinople again

Even though Greece and Turkey are both allies?

An ally who loves to violate your airspace in need
is an ally indeed

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greece_-_Turkey_relations#Incidents

[RomeW]

I know that because it became Turkish. When Greece wins it back, it'll be called Constantinople again

Even though Greece and Turkey are both allies?

I think they're allies in name only...those two still have a lot of issues to resolve.

[Ceannairceach]

...That doesn't really matter. Its the largest nation, but it doesn't have the most Anglican churches, does it?

Maybe because Russia is an Orthodox nation?

The fact that an Orthodox country of 140 mio. has more Orthodox sites than an Orthodox country of 11 mio. still doesn't strike as particulary odd.

I was referring to your mention of how it was largest. Of course it will have the most Orthodox centers when its the Third Rome(according to the Orthodox Christians, I believe).

[DizKneeLandRand]

That's nobody's business but the Turks.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vankaSlfSr0

LOL- You got to it before I had the chance.

[United Mercenary Firms]

I know that because it became Turkish. When Greece wins it back, it'll be called Constantinople again

Either you're fishing for jokes or you live in Lala Land.

Greece has tried, you know, in the past. After World War I, the Greek government tried to occupy Turkish Thrace (Constantinople included) and got handed some serious resistance by the Turkish population.

Since the Middle Ages, the Turkish government has always made sure that the number of Turks in Thrace outweighed the number of Byzantine Greeks and other people until the native Europeans became an obscure minority. Most of the Greeks who still lived in Constantinople were forcibly deported to Greece during the population exchanges between Greece and Turkey in the 1920's.

[Nanatsu no Tsuki]

Either you're fishing for jokes or you live in Lala Land.

Greece has tried, you know, in the past. After World War I, the Greek government tried to occupy Turkish Thrace (Constantinople included) and got handed some serious resistance by the Turkish population.

Since the Middle Ages, the Turkish government has always made sure that the number of Turks in Thrace outweighed the number of Byzantine Greeks and other people until the native Europeans became an obscure minority. Most of the Greeks who still lived in Constantinople were forcibly deported to Greece during the population exchanges between Greece and Turkey in the 1920's.

Yeah, in the 1920s. It's 2011. I don't think Greece can pull a stunt like that. They have their own shit to deal with.

[Baltenstein]

Either you're fishing for jokes or you live in Lala Land.

Greece has tried, you know, in the past. After World War I, the Greek government tried to occupy Turkish Thrace (Constantinople included) and got handed some serious resistance by the Turkish population.

Yup, that was our very last chance to take Constantinople back. And it could have succeded, if those idiots hadn't try to conquer Asia Minor as well, in an act of Neo-Alexandrinian lunacy.
Now, the city is Turkish, and it will always be Turkish. The Greeks have accepted this, the OP's rants notwithstanding.

[Meryuma]

They don't really have anything else to be proud of.

Sad thing is, I really did try to think of something they could lay claim to nowadays. I got nothing.

I knew a cute guy from camp who was Greek.

[Knightly Order-States]

Really, the place has always been called Constantinople after its true Roman founder.....Stamboul, or 'Istanbul' in modern Turkic language, was really just a local term used to refer to Constantinople until the 1920's.

I was brought up with the term 'Constantinople', never 'Istanbul' because I had a history teacher with a relative who had always called it that before they changed it to 'Istanbul'.

Lots of Europeans and Westerners still called it Constantinople for the entirety of the 1920's and into the 1930's. Even Robert Ripley did when he referred to the city (If I'm not mistaken, shortly after they officially changed the name). I think the change happened in 1936 or so. A lot of Westerners liked going there, and had to learn to say 'Istanbul' and got that stamped on their passports and suitcases. Plus, it started being in print a lot more (newspapers, magazines, media, etc.)

Anyway, Constantinople rightfully and originally belonged to the Greeks up until 1900 or so, I would say. They lost their last chance in the 1800's to seize back for themselves, so now I will say it's a thoroughly and rightfully Turkish possession. The people there have been mainly Turks for so long it would be impossible to restore it to Greek control.

[Nanatsu no Tsuki]

Greece has tried, you know, in the past. After World War I, the Greek government tried to occupy Turkish Thrace (Constantinople included) and got handed some serious resistance by the Turkish population.

Yup, that was our very last chance to take Constantinople back. And it could have succeded, if those idiots hadn't try to conquer Asia Minor as well, in an act of Neo-Alexandrinian lunacy.
Now, the city is Turkish, and it will always be Turkish. The Greeks have accepted this, the OP's rants notwithstanding.

Thank you for pointing that out.

[The Yngir-Star-Hungry]

I call Istanbul Constantinople for the same reason that I call Volgograd Stalingrad: their names just have so much history behind them and I feel that I'm throwing them away if I change the way I call them.

Or I just started calling them that to troll my high school teachers (while using the pretense the pretense of sentimentality) and the habit stuck.