Cyprus-Forum.com

[garbitsch]

Exactly Devil. There is no problem if Istanbul is refered as "Konstantinopolis" in Greek but its English name is Istanbul and must be called Istanbul when English is used. Spaniards say Estambul and we have no problem with that either.
And there is a little difference btw Constantinople and Istanbul. The former means "Constantine's city" and the latter means "to the city". This is the primary reason why I dislike the former, since the city is not Konstantine's anymore

[cannedmoose]

A city should be called whatever its inhabitants call it. Therefore Istanbul is Istanbul. Otherwise, where do we stop? Do we start calling London Londinium or New York City New Amsterdam? As another poster said, when the English news on PIK say Constantinople it comes across as faintly ridiculous.

[Chrisswirl]

The fact is that many cities in the region, not just Istanbul / Constantinople have two (probably more!) names,

Izmir is also Smyrna
Thesaloniki is also Selanic / Solun (?)
Komotini is also Gümülcine (?)
Bozcaada is Tenedhos (though I'm not sure if Turks were historically living here in any great number)

[Piratis]

Don't the TCs have their own version of city names? Is there a problem with that?

In Constantinople/Istanbul (and in Turkey in general) a Greek minority exists. If we add to that the fact that Constantinople was both the older name and the one used for the longest period, then why do Turks have a problem with it? Probably it is because they have some kind of complex because in their own land they have contributed less civilization than Greeks. This is why they are trying to hide the fact that many of their cities were founded by Greeks and that most of "their" great monuments are Greek and Roman.

[garbitsch]

bla bla bla

Piratis we do not have a problem if Greeks use Konstantinople when speaking Greek, but the English name for the city is Istanbul and it should be pronounced as "Istanbul" in the English news of PIK. But when you insist on "Constantinople" when speaking in English is a kind of complex, since you have lost this city to the glorious Ottoman Empire. You know this city was no more than a village in Byzantine and it was the Ottomans who turned this city into a wonder. (This post is written in the same language of yours )

[garbitsch]

Murtaza, c'mon. In our education system (just like the other education systems throughout the world), they made us think that Ottomans had the right to conquere every territory. This city belonged to Greeks and we conquered it. In order to justify this action, we made to believe that Istanbul is actually a Turkish word. Actually they didn't teach us the origin of the word "istanbul", but there were some rumors that it meant "Islamibol", which is wrong. By the way, I didn't say that Greeks used to call the city "Eis tin poli" i.e. " to the city". They used to call it "poli", which for them there was only one city and it was Istanbul. But the Ottomans must have heard of Greeks saying "eis tin poli! eis tin poli!". They might think "eis tin poli" is the actual name for Istanbul. Anyway this was just made up by me

It's like when the colonists first landed Australia they saw kangaroos and asked Aborigines what these animals are called. Aborigines said "kangaroo" and colonists thought this was the name for these animals. In fact, kangaroo means "I don't know"

[magikthrill]

It's like when the colonists first landed Australia they saw kangaroos and asked Aborigines what these animals are called. Aborigines said "kangaroo" and colonists thought this was the name for these animals. In fact, kangaroo means "I don't know"

oh wow i did not know this. pretty funny hehehe.

as for istanbul vs. constantinople i prefer to use the former since i like the sound better and the latter is too long

[magikthrill]

Piratis we do not have a problem if Greeks use Konstantinople when speaking Greek, but the English name for the city is Istanbul and it should be pronounced as "Istanbul" in the English news of PIK. But when you insist on "Constantinople" when speaking in English is a kind of complex, since you have lost this city to the glorious Ottoman Empire. You know this city was no more than a village in Byzantine and it was the Ottomans who turned this city into a wonder. (This post is written in the same language of yours )

hehe i love your quote on piratis as bla bla bla.

i am assuming your joing though. unless of course you assume that huge ass churches are built in villages only. which is not the case mate.

and sadly what piratis said is partly true. our teacher was telling us how when she visited asia minor in turkey the tour guide tried to pass some ancient greek monuments as turkish but when my (ancient greek) teacher asked the tour guide to translate one of the plaques he just ignored her and moved on

[Murtaza]

Murtaza, c'mon. In our education system (just like the other education systems throughout the world), they made us think that Ottomans had the right to conquere every territory. This city belonged to Greeks and we conquered it. In order to justify this action, we made to believe that Istanbul is actually a Turkish word. Actually they didn't teach us the origin of the word "istanbul", but there were some rumors that it meant "Islamibol", which is wrong. By the way, I didn't say that Greeks used to call the city "Eis tin poli" i.e. " to the city". They used to call it "poli", which for them there was only one city and it was Istanbul. But the Ottomans must have heard of Greeks saying "eis tin poli! eis tin poli!". They might think "eis tin poli" is the actual name for Istanbul. Anyway this was just made up by me

It's like when the colonists first landed Australia they saw kangaroos and asked Aborigines what these animals are called. Aborigines said "kangaroo" and colonists thought this was the name for these animals. In fact, kangaroo means "I don't know"

No I mean I dont care if Orijin of Istanbul is greek or not.(For Exp Izmir is a greek name, but still Turks own and love that city)

I just dont understand why Ottomans have to justify or we have to justify conquerer of Istanbul?

We all know İstanbul was a greek city.Even Name of İstanbul becomes home of Turks"Turkevi", we all know it was a greek city.

So Putting a Turkish name wont change its orijin.
And wont justify any conquerer.

But I dont see any reason to justify conquerance(If there is such word) too.

[garbitsch]

Magik I have never heard of Turks claiming Greek monuments as Turkish.... They might say that "these are the beauties of Turkey" but even an embessil knows that these were built by ancient Greeks. I cannot believe some people claim these were Turkish monuments. I just do not want to believe