Imperial Istanbul

[isaidso]

Istanbul is rising once again! Without a doubt, Istanbul is one of the greatest cities ever to grace the earth. What other city managed to maintain such prominence for 1700 years? London's been there for 200 years?

It's shocking how many people in north America are ignorant of this city, but I have a feeling that situation will change in the not too distant future.

Greetings from Canada!

[CF221]

London's been there for 200 years???? O.o???

[Cadîr]

London appeared on the world stage in the last 5 centuries, and became cosmopolitan only about 2 centuries ago. You couldn't see the diversity and tolerance of Constantinople in London about 500 years ago.

Whereas Constantinople was founded and meant to be a capital 1700 years ago, it continued to be cosmopolitan and it still is, linking two seas and two continents.

That's why Napoleon said "If there would be a capital city of the world, that would be Constantinople".

[Salazar Rick]

this city is very important in the history.

[Rekarte]

Originally Posted by Cadîr

London appeared on the world stage in the last 5 centuries, and became cosmopolitan only about 2 centuries ago. You couldn't see the diversity and tolerance of Constantinople in London about 500 years ago.

Whereas Constantinople was founded and meant to be a capital 1700 years ago, it continued to be cosmopolitan and it still is, linking two seas and two continents.

That's why Napoleon said "If there would be a capital city of the world, that would be Constantinople".

yeah,amazing history!

[leemike]

Hi,all the sharing is very nice so thanks for such nice post.

lee

[Dmerdude]

Originally Posted by Cadîr

London appeared on the world stage in the last 5 centuries, and became cosmopolitan only about 2 centuries ago. You couldn't see the diversity and tolerance of Constantinople in London about 500 years ago.

Whereas Constantinople was founded and meant to be a capital 1700 years ago, it continued to be cosmopolitan and it still is, linking two seas and two continents.

That's why Napoleon said "If there would be a capital city of the world, that would be Constantinople".

It's nearly 100% Turkish and Kurdish, that's not cosmopolitan.

[Şölen]

Originally Posted by Dmerdude

It's nearly 100% Turkish and Kurdish, that's not cosmopolitan.

Waow, how much you know. This is not true. I don't even waste my time explaining it to you. I'm in a not touristical part of İstanbul now, and in the small health blahblahs it is in 4 languages: turkish, english, russian and arabic.

Canadians are always Canadians. I have never seen such a people, you are just an example. You better not talk about the things you have no idea.

[Dmerdude]

Originally Posted by Şölen

Waow, how much you know. This is not true. I don't even waste my time explaining it to you. I'm in a not touristical part of İstanbul now, and in the small health blahblahs it is in 4 languages: turkish, english, russian and arabic.

Canadians are always Canadians. I have never seen such a people, you are just an example. You better not talk about the things you have no idea.

I'm Turkish, Sherlock. And yes, share of foreign residents as a percentage is very low in Istanbul. Tourists don't really count.

[Şölen]

Originally Posted by Dmerdude

I'm Turkish, Sherlock. And yes, share of foreign residents as a percentage is very low in Istanbul. Tourists don't really count.

If we consider there is no Canadian ethnicity..

Anyway I told you it is not touristical. I'm seriously not gonna discuss a funny thing like this.

Cheers.

[Dmerdude]

Originally Posted by Şölen

If we consider there is no Canadian ethnicity..

I'm not even a Canadian citizen.

Originally Posted by Şölen

Anyway I told you it is not touristical. I'm seriously not gonna discuss a funny thing like this.

Cheers.

According to TUIK 2000 Census, there were only 50k foreign citizens in Istanbul. Out of 10 million (in year 2000)?

http://www.tuik.gov.tr/VeriBilgi.do?alt_id=38

Istanbul is an important city (alpha minus*), but it is not cosmopolitan in the sense many Western European and North American cities are.

* http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_city

[Cadîr]

Yes it is cosmopolitan.

There are thousands of immigrants from Central Asian countries only, not to count Africans, Russians and Eastern Europeans (Bulgarians, Albanians, Bosnians, Romanians and even Greeks).

Recently, thousands of westerners reside in Istanbul too.

Your statistics is worth almost zero (0), because it's 12 years old and it's before the financial crisis of 2001 and before the economic development that followed and still continues.

And back to the topic, I can say that Constantinople was cosmopolitan ever since, whereas London was a muddy slum on the shores of the Thames where they could not accept the existence of other ethnicities. The only foreigners in London back then were the slaves, when in Istanbul there were neighborhoods for Jews, Armenians, Greeks, Bulgarians, Venetians, Egyptians etc. This is real, historic cosmopolitanism, rooted deep in their culture.

[Dmerdude]

Originally Posted by Cadîr

Yes it is cosmopolitan.

There are thousands of immigrants from Central Asian countries only, not to count Africans, Russians and Eastern Europeans (Bulgarians, Albanians, Bosnians, Romanians and even Greeks).

Recently, thousands of westerners reside in Istanbul too.

Your statistics is worth almost zero (0), because it's 12 years old and it's before the financial crisis of 2001 and before the economic development that followed and still continues.

And back to the topic, I can say that Constantinople was cosmopolitan ever since, whereas London was a muddy slum on the shores of the Thames where they could not accept the existence of other ethnicities. The only foreigners in London back then were the slaves, when in Istanbul there were neighborhoods for Jews, Armenians, Greeks, Bulgarians, Venetians, Egyptians etc. This is real, historic cosmopolitanism, rooted deep in their culture.

According Turkish police 2010 stats, there were 105,156 foreign residents in Istanbul. That's less than 1% of Istanbul population. Not cosmopolitan.

http://www.turkinfo.nl/haber-3860-Tu...abancilar.html

Why are you so fond of exaggeration, and so opposed to being accurate?

[Cadîr]

Whatever.
But London wasn't always cosmopolitan and friendly towards foreigners, in contrast to Istanbul.
London is a small child...

[Dmerdude]

Originally Posted by Cadîr

Whatever.
But London wasn't always cosmopolitan and friendly towards foreigners, in contrast to Istanbul.
London is a small child...

London is the 2nd most important city in the world, with something like almost half of the population being foreign.

Istanbul is not even in top 20, with less than 1% of the population being foreign.

If you say stuff like that, noone's gonna take you seriously. And past really doesn't matter. New York did not exist 500 years ago, yet it's the most important city in the world today.

[Jünyus Brütüs]

Originally Posted by Dmerdude

According Turkish police 2010 stats, there were 105,156 foreign residents in Istanbul. That's less than 1% of Istanbul population. Not cosmopolitan.

http://www.turkinfo.nl/haber-3860-Tu...abancilar.html

Why are you so fond of exaggeration, and so opposed to being accurate?

There are many illegals in Turkey/Istanbul. Giving an official number is impossible due to corrupt Turkish authorities. You know Greece always complian about illegal border crossing and you have to know that thousands of those migrants end up in Istanbul and can't go anywhere(every year 200 thousand to 300 thousand illegals cross Turkish border and half of them stay here-mostly in large western cities).

There are 50000 illegal Armenians living for example in the city.
The old Rromany/Kurdish districts such as Tarlabasi currently inhabitted by Iraqis. Or in Kurtuluş there is a new neighbourhood called "New Baghdad" where the population is completely made up by christian Iraqis.

Most of the streetsellers have African origin.

Central Asians are completely dominant in housekeeping industry, almost every worker has CA origin.

In and around Aksaray and Laleli districts, the daily spoken language is Russian as well as Caucasian languages since Istanbul also home to many people from Ossetia, Akhbazia, Georgia...

Also there are young Iranians coming to the city, many have homosexual background. For example one of my my colleagues arrived in Istanbul 3 years ago and still waiting a "yes" from Canada. Seems like he will wait for next 3 years too and the city started to become his new home. Many examples like him.. after long years they change their mind and then start to wait a "yes" from Turkish authorities this time(unfortunately Turkey's refugee policy is really bad)

Otoh there are legals too that currently carry Turkish citizenship. Bayrampaşa district is home to large Bosniak neighbourhoods that are all established after the war in Yugoslavia. Same places also have large Pomak and Albanian groups.

There are large Tatar neighbourhoods in Zeytinburnu.

Prince Islands still keeps it's Jewish and Greek residents. After the crisis the city also welcomes it's new Greek residents.

Central districts are home to many Erasmus students as well as young professionals from W. Europe.

Other than the foreign residents it's also home to millions of tourists and in the list of top 10 most visited cities in the world.

[Cadîr]

Now back to business:

Küçüksu Palace or Küçüksu Pavilion, aka Göksu Pavilion, (Turkish: Küçüksu Kasrı) is a summer palace in Istanbul, Turkey, situated in Küçüksu neighborhood of Beykoz district, at the Asian shore of Bosphorus between Anadoluhisarı and Fatih Sultan Mehmet Bridge today. The tiny palace was used by Ottoman sultans for short stays during country excursions and hunting.

image hosted on flickr

Kucuksu Pavilion / Küçüksu Kasrı, İstanbul / Turkey by Senol Demir, on Flickr

[Dmerdude]

Originally Posted by Jünyus Brütüs

There are many illegals in Turkey/Istanbul. Giving an official number is impossible due to corrupt Turkish authorities. You know Greece always complian about illegal border crossing and you have to know that thousands of those migrants end up in Istanbul and can't go anywhere(every year 200 thousand to 300 thousand illegals cross Turkish border and half of them stay here-mostly in large western cities).

There are 50000 illegal Armenians living for example in the city.
The old Rromany/Kurdish districts such as Tarlabasi currently inhabitted by Iraqis. Or in Kurtuluş there is a new neighbourhood called "New Baghdad" where the population is completely made up by christian Iraqis.

Most of the streetsellers have African origin.

Central Asians are completely dominant in housekeeping industry, almost every worker has CA origin.

In and around Aksaray and Laleli districts, the daily spoken language is Russian as well as Caucasian languages since Istanbul also home to many people from Ossetia, Akhbazia, Georgia...

These are rather meaningless without the actual stats and their links.

Originally Posted by Jünyus Brütüs

Also there are young Iranians coming to the city, many have homosexual background. For example one of my my colleagues arrived in Istanbul 3 years ago and still waiting a "yes" from Canada. Seems like he will wait for next 3 years too and the city started to become his new home. Many examples like him.. after long years they change their mind and then start to wait a "yes" from Turkish authorities this time(unfortunately Turkey's refugee policy is really bad)

Otoh there are legals too that currently carry Turkish citizenship. Bayrampaşa district is home to large Bosniak neighbourhoods that are all established after the war in Yugoslavia. Same places also have large Pomak and Albanian groups.

There are large Tatar neighbourhoods in Zeytinburnu.

Again, these are not comparable to cities like London and New York, which have millions of immigrants from all corners of the world. Istanbul's immigrants are very regional, and religion-specific (i.e., muslims from Balkans).

Prince Islands still keeps it's Jewish and Greek residents. After the crisis the city also welcomes it's new Greek residents.

There were only 2,600 Greeks in Turkey in 2006*. And there are only 17,000 Jewish people in Turkey at the moment.

*http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greeks_...te_ref-HRW_3-1
**http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History...Jews_in_Turkey


Do you really not understand few thousand people do not make a city cosmopolitan? This is why I do not trust your descriptions and why you need some stats.

Central districts are home to many Erasmus students as well as young professionals from W. Europe.

many = few thousand in a 12 million city?

Other than the foreign residents it's also home to millions of tourists and in the list of top 10 most visited cities in the world.

Again, tourism does not really count. There is a different between being a touristic city and having kids with different ethnicities in a Turkish high school.

[SO143]

istanbul is NOT a competitor of london, vice versa and they are not in the same league as well. this discussion is just ridiculous.

[Jünyus Brütüs]

@DMerdude since you wanted links I've sent you a list of links and articles via pm to not go offtopic here anymore.