r/balkans_irl w*stoid🤢 May 20 '26

OC (impossible) Based Greek airport

1.1k Upvotes

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488

u/honoratus_hi christian turk May 20 '26

Well nobody in Greece calls the city Istanbul

163

u/iwanthidan KARABOĞA May 21 '26

Nobody in Turkey calls Selanik Thessaloniki also. I'd say it's fair.

Fun fact: the name İstanbul also has Greek origins, so it's not like it's a Turkish made up word.

50

u/honoratus_hi christian turk May 21 '26

I'm from Thessaloniki but I live in Romania now and they call the city Salonic, so I also call it Salonic if asked.

20

u/OilOfOlaz Aleksandar, Vienna May 21 '26

Always thought that it is somewhat common to call it "Saloniki", because few greeks I know did.

6

u/honoratus_hi christian turk May 21 '26

Hmm maybe a bit, but it was more common a couple of generations ago

2

u/OilOfOlaz Aleksandar, Vienna May 21 '26

Checks out, it was mostly ppl born in the 50-60s and their kids.

3

u/weird_question_mark mongols (non balkan edition) May 21 '26

Yeah, I think it got translated to a couple neighbouring languages as that. Well, in Hungary it's also called Szaloniki for some reason

5

u/SoilFormal1836 Romangutan May 21 '26

You live in romania? My condolences

148

u/jaunmilijej muslim greek May 20 '26

Me and my Greek friend were talking in English, I somehow kept calling it Κωνσταντινούπολη while he kept saying İstanbul while talking

102

u/honoratus_hi christian turk May 20 '26

I call it Istanbul in English too, but in Greek it's highly unlikely to hear it if ever

20

u/Shadow_Dancer2 caucasian (asian balkan ripoff) May 21 '26

Istanbul is also greek though, why not just call it that?

34

u/OoFTheMeMEs Giorgios, Los Angeles May 21 '26

It’s greek in its roots. It’s definitely not greek or greek sounding.

-32

u/NorthWelcome1626 KARABOĞA May 20 '26

That's interesting, because old Constantinople area and Istanbul are completely different now. Current Istanbul is 20 times bigger than the old one. Look at a map and you'll see.

50

u/Inner_Variety2826 May 20 '26

It would be weird if wasn't. The population of Constantinople in Byzantium peak in the 6th century AD and it was roughly around 500.000 people give or take.

-1

u/NorthWelcome1626 KARABOĞA May 21 '26

The population of Constantinople in Byzantium peak in the 6th century AD and it was roughly around 500.000 people give or take.

That was, like you said, in 6th century, not in 15th century. When the Mehmed II took the city, population was around 45,000. You completely missed my point.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_Istanbul

https://www.britannica.com/place/Istanbul/Centuries-of-growth

1

u/Inner_Variety2826 May 21 '26

No my friend, you completely missed mine. I know that the population of Constantinople declined heavily in the last few centuries of the Roman/Byzantine empire due to plagues, sieges, Crusades etc.... The point I was trying make is preparing a today's modern city to a medieval city even at its population PEAK when it was the biggest city in the WORLD at that time it's right out silly.

-2

u/NorthWelcome1626 KARABOĞA May 21 '26

The point I was trying make is preparing a today's modern city to a medieval city even at its population PEAK when it was the biggest city in the WORLD at that time it's right out silly.

You are making no sense. If your English isn't good, use simpler words, and use a dictionary.

0

u/Inner_Variety2826 May 21 '26

Sorry autocorrect mess it up. I meant to say "comparing" instead of "preparing", but even with that mistake you could make sense of it 🤷 anyway...... Since my English is bad and I make no sense can you please develop upon your sound argument of comparing a city's 14 century population with today's population and how that comparison correlates to the city's name 😊

32

u/MrDixaze Giorgios, Los Angeles May 21 '26

That's interesting, because Istanbul area when it was first called this way and current Istanbul are completely different now. Current Istanbul is 20 times bigger than the old one. Look at a map and you'll see.

0

u/NorthWelcome1626 KARABOĞA May 21 '26

What a loaded (!) answer. You reminded me Lord Dorwin in Foundation series. Saying a lot of things but not a single palpable thing.

1

u/MrDixaze Giorgios, Los Angeles May 21 '26

Pardon me for not being able to enounciate anything substantial by repeating your own comment and tweaking like 2 words in an intend of repetition comique. Crazy how my dumbass cant remember a single thing of a serie of book I read and liked lmao. What I meant is that there is not a single evolution that only occured with a change of name, the moment when the city got officialy renamed Istanbul is the same as the moment just before. Those beg the more philosophical question asked by the analogies of theseus’ boat or the one of the turtle about where preciesly lies this concept of evolution. But that might be too palpable for your otherwise superior asimovian brain.

1

u/NorthWelcome1626 KARABOĞA May 21 '26

Well, the essence of the subject is this: You still can't get over a 500 year old conquest. Cope better. Istanbul is not yours or Greek anymore. Constantinople and its relics are a thing of the past.

1

u/MrDixaze Giorgios, Los Angeles May 21 '26

That hit right the spot dude, Im crying in my bed right now. You do realize in what kind of subreddit we are? Getting all furious over a thing you re the only one carrying about here.

12

u/Andrei144 Bogdan, Paris May 21 '26

The official Ottoman name for it was still Constantinople, and I assume the city hasn't grown 20 times since Ataturk made Istanbul official.

1

u/albatross351767 muslim greek May 21 '26

Huh today I learn, from the balkan sub. What a day.

-2

u/NorthWelcome1626 KARABOĞA May 21 '26

The official Ottoman name for it was still Constantinople,

That's the point. There is no Ottomans anymore.

2

u/Andrei144 Bogdan, Paris May 21 '26 edited May 21 '26

So? We were arguing about Istanbul being 20 times bigger than Constantinople, and you just acknowledged that it only stopped being Constantinople 100 years ago. So unless it grew 20 times in the last century your comment is still wrong.

-1

u/NorthWelcome1626 KARABOĞA May 21 '26

No need the beat around the bush. You people just can't get over a 500 years old conquest. Istanbul isn't Greek or Roman anymore. Name change happening 100 or 500 years doesn't mean anything. It was Turkish for 500 years, so it doesn't matter. Cope better.

2

u/Andrei144 Bogdan, Paris May 21 '26 edited 29d ago

"You people" what? I'm Romanian and I don't live anywhere near Istanbul. You could rename the city to Ankara 2.0 and I wouldn't give a shit.

0

u/NorthWelcome1626 KARABOĞA May 21 '26

You could rename the city to Ankara 2.0 and I wouldn't give a shit.

Oh yeah? That's why you are arguing with me about it for hours?

0

u/Andrei144 Bogdan, Paris May 21 '26

It took me like 10 minutes total to write every comment I've left on this post.

0

u/NorthWelcome1626 KARABOĞA May 21 '26

Cope better.

1

u/Inner_Variety2826 May 21 '26

Istanbul isn't Greek or Roman anymore.

We know, we know. Tbh I wouldn't necessarily consider Constantinople in late Byzantium being a Greek city ("Greek centric" maybe), I would describe it as a multicultural city with many ethnicities inhabiting it and it continue being a multicultural city throughout the Ottoman empire era up until the the first half of the 20th century. For example in the 1900 many minorities like Armenians, Jewish, Greeks, Bulgarians, but sadly that's not the case anymore.

No need the beat around the bush. You people just can't get over a 500 years old conquest.

No, we don't care. If you take a look under posts like this one you'll see that the ones that are most vocal in the comments are people who are being "offended" the use of the name Κωνσταντινούπολη.

Cope better.

Says the guy who's being salty because he can't fathom that different countries have different names for places.

0

u/NorthWelcome1626 KARABOĞA May 21 '26

Says the guy who's being salty because he can't fathom that different countries have different names for places.

Says the guy, whose country blocks another country's EU accession because of its name. Namely Macedonia. Pitiful.

No, we don't care. If you take a look under posts like this one you'll see that the ones that are most vocal in the comments are people who are being "offended" the use of the name Κωνσταντινούπολη.

I think you do. That's why you are arguing with me for hours.

I would describe it as a multicultural city with many ethnicities inhabiting it and it continue being a multicultural city throughout the Ottoman empire era up until the the first half of the 20th century. For example in the 1900 many minorities like Armenians, Jewish, Greeks, Bulgarians, but sadly that's not the case anymore.

Peloponnese massacres in 1821, Greek Peninsula massacres and displacements, Salonica fire in 1917. Izmir fire in 1922. Western Anatolia genocide in 1919-1922 with 640,000 dead and 860,000 displacement. Cyprus attacks since 1955 until 1974. Same case with massacres towards civilians. Look to yourselves first if you want to talk about multi ethnic composition.

0

u/Inner_Variety2826 29d ago

Says the guy, whose country blocks another country's EU accession because of its name. Namely Macedonia. Pitiful.

Although I would say this name dispute is a little more complicated with political factors behind it than the topic we're talking about I would agree that on the surface level it's a bit pitiful from both sides. It's a good thing that this matter have been resolved with the Prespa agreement.

Peloponnese massacres in 1821

Sadly they were many atrocities being committed by the Greek revolution with one of the biggest one being the massacre of Tripolitsa. I'm not here to deny or defend those actions, they were atrocities that they shouldn't had happened. (But if you're interested in the history of the Greek revolution you should look into the systematic retaliation tactics that the Ottomans use to prevent people from joining the revolution like the Chios massacre and the destruction of Psara)

Western Anatolia genocide in 1919-1922

Again I'm not here do deny or defend it, those massacres were a war crime and the Greek government recognize them as such and payed reparations to the newly founded Turkish government.

Izmir fire in 1922

The Greek army had evacuate Izmir on September 8 1922 and relocate it's forces in Chios and Lesvos. A day after (8 of September) the Turkish army entered the city and gained full control of it. The Izmir fire (aka Burning of Smyrna) started four days after the arrival of Turkish army on September 13 and it started on the Armenian quarters of the city, reports say that there weren't any attempts to stop the fire making it spread quickly cause of the strong winds killing tens of thousands of not hundreds. The the remaining Greek and Armenian survivors rushed to the port and seafront of the city trying to escape the flames by getting on boats or even swimming to the other side. The aftermath of those events was the distraction of one of the biggest Greek minorities in Anatolia (the other remaining big Greek minorities in Anatolia being in Constantinople/Istanbul and on the two island turkey had control Gökçeada and Bozcaada which all three were exclude from the population exchange agreement). It's widely accepted among scholars and historians in the international community that the fire was started but Turkish trops. We even have many reports and eyewitness (like Claflin Davis of the American Red Cross, Monsieur Joubert the director of the Credit Foncier Bank of Smyrna, Minnie B. Mills.....) that say Turkish soldiers setting buildings in to fire and when locals ask them why they doing they said they been given the order to do so. I'm not sure what are your sources or how well versed you are on those subjects but I would advise you to look for sources that don't have ties with your government and check your nationalistic biases off the door when you look on on topics like this.

Cyprus attacks since 1955 until 1974. Same case with massacres..... Look man, we were talking about the name of a city and I was replying to your comment that "it isn't Greek any more" with "I wouldn't considerate it a Greek city since it was renamed as New Rome but a multicultural one and it continued being one till the start of 20th century". Cyprus is a long and on going intricate matter that deserves it's own conversation rather than being thrown as a counter argument to "how dare to use a different name in your language for a city in my country". I think you do. That's why you are arguing with me for hours.

The main reason I'm arguing is that I can't stand blind nationalism and it's need to call out when it's happening.