How does Turkey defend Istanbul?

[robert_columbia]

@the_diego

Istanbul came close to being restored to Constantinople during World War 1, according to one book I read concerning Nicholas and Alexandria. Had the Russian throne been preserved and, with a WW1 victory, Turkey would have been given to Russia (I’m assuming some things here, like greater sympathy for the Greek Orthodox Church.)

@the_diego

Good correction but I meant it would be restored to Greek Orthodox religion, the Hagia Sophia goes back to being a Christian Church, and all that (not likely the Byzantine royal line would be restored.)

The Russian throne was Orthodox, so I imagine that there wouldn’t have been a question over the Hagia Sophia becoming an Orthodox Christian church again, though there might have been a political squabble over what bishop (Russian Orthodox or Greek Orthodox) gets jurisdiction over it and under what terms the city itself could be turned over to an independent Greek nation. The Russian Orthodox Church and the Greek Orthodox Church are the same faith in the same sense that the Church of England, the Anglican Church of Canada, and the Episcopal Church USA are the same faith. You can’t “convert” from one to another, but you can transfer your membership in a bureaucratic sense.

[John_Mace]

How does Turkey defend Istanbul? With a ZOMBIE ARMY, of course!

(This thread is almost 10 years old.)

[Lemur866]

As far as the hellenized Eastern Roman Empire ruling from Constantinople for 1000 years, the Turks have ruled from the same city for 500 years. And after the ethnic cleansings and conversions over the next 500 years culminating in the population transfers of the early 20th century there are almost no Greek speaking/Orthodox Christian/Hellenes left inside the modern borders of Turkey. And of course, the people who live in what is now Turkey aren’t pure Turks from the central asian steppes, but a mestizo people, just like Mexicans are a combination of indigenous people and Spanish conquerors.

Yes, there are lots of people who live in Turkey and identify as Turkish and speak Turkish and are Muslims. But most of their ancestry is Anatolian, not central Asian. Turkish people - Wikipedia

[Ethilrist]

That’s nobody’s business but the Turks.

[bob_2]

You do realise that Turkey is in NATO? So if the Greeks got stroppy (to distract the population from their present troubles?) the rest of us would have to pitch in and defend them.

I was in Istanbul last year and they are really nice people (taxi drivers excluded). A mix of muslim ans secular, where you see workers praying on the pavement while sellers of tourist tat walk around them.

[gnoitall]

@bob_2

You do realise that Turkey is in NATO? So if the Greeks got stroppy (to distract the population from their present troubles?) the rest of us would have to pitch in and defend them.

I was in Istanbul last year and they are really nice people (taxi drivers excluded). A mix of muslim ans secular, where you see workers praying on the pavement while sellers of tourist tat walk around them.

You do realize that Greece is in NATO? So if the Greeks got stroppy NATO would quietly sit on them* and absolutely nothing visible from the outside would happen.

*“quietly” == diplomacy. There’s an amazing amount of diplomacy dedicated to what, to most outsiders, just seems like The Uber-Army of Western Democracy ™. As far as I know, most of the technical, organizational, and logistical issues of NATO are old hat. The primary ongoing work of NATO is intra-organizational diplomacy.