Istanbul

Istanbul (historical name “Constantinople”), prefecture of the province of the same name, is largest Ville of Turkey with: 12000000 inhabitants (according to TUIK, 2006).

Located at horse on the Europe and the Asia, on both sides of the Strait of the Bosphorus, she is generally regarded as European. She is in the center of the one of largest the Agglomération S of the continent and constitutes the principal economic pole country. She is the only city in the world with being with horse between two continents. She is regarded as a sublime door between Europe and Asia.

Also called the New Rome (moreover, like Rome, Istanbul is founded on seven hills), Istanbul belonged in turn to the ancient Greece, with the Roman Empire of which it was the second capital, with the Byzantine Empire, with the Ottoman Empire, then, just after the fall of this one, with the Turkey. The old names of the city, Byzance then Constantinople , testify to this history, and there are few of other cities having had three names during the history. From the historical point of view, one can consider that Istanbul is one of the three most important cities with Athens and Rome.

The inhabitants of Byzance were the Byzantine and those of Constantinople the Constantinopolitains .
The inhabitants of Istanbul are the Stambouliotes .

Names of the city

Various assumptions exist as for the origin of the word Istanbul . The first makes a deformation of the words of it Greek S εις τήν Πόλι (ν) , Eis tèn Poli (N) , which wants to say “towards the City” - Constantinople is the prototype of the city, that which one does not give the name, that one indicates only by this name, the City as old Rome was called Urbs . Another suggests that the name would come from the Turkish contraction of the Greek Constantinoupolis , to which would have been added the vowel of connection I , in the same way as Smyrna (in Latin Smyrna ) became İzmir and Nicée (in Latin Nicaea ) İznik.

Until 1930, the agglomeration of Istanbul was called officially Constantinople , and Stamboul indicated only the Old city (the historical peninsula). This name was extended to all the city in the modern form of Istanbul following the reform of the language and the Turkish writing by Atatürk in 1928 (the Révolution of the signs).

It should be noted that the Turks of Armenian origin call Istanbul Bolis , and the Greeks Polis (“the City”). “Politis” is the man of Constantinople.

The Slavic people under the Byzantine domination then Othoman called it Tzargrad : the city of the Emperor.

History

It was based by the Roman Emperor Constantin {{Ier}} in 330 on the site of the old Greek colony Byzantium which exists since the 7th century before J.C. The city was baptized Constantinople in the honor of the Emperor (it is only the March 28th 1930 which the name of Istanbul became official). The city became the Eastern capital of the Roman Empire and later that of the Byzantine Empire. After the Fall of Constantinople the May 29th 1453, it was incorporated in the Ottoman Empire by Mehmet {{II}} the Conqueror and became about it the new capital, substitute Edirne (Turkey-red cotton) in Thrace. It remained the capital of the Ottoman Empire during five centuries but lost this function on October 1st 1923, in favor of Ankara, the capital of the Republic of Turkey. Following migrations as from the years 1950 from the villages of Anatolia, the city quickly became one of the most important agglomerations of Europe. The city counted: 700000 inhabitants in 1927,1 million in 1950,2 million in 1960,3,5 million in 1970 and finally 12 million to date. Not-official estimates would count up to 12 million inhabitants in 2007, considering the important surge of the people coming from Anatolia from the east, installed in Bidonville S with wild, and not listed constructions.

Demography and religion

The city was always an important center for the religions Christian woman and Moslem woman. In 1454, the Mehmet sultan who had just conquered the city and to put an end to the Byzantine Empire decided to perpetuate the role of Constantinople like centers spiritual orthodoxe Christian world thanks to the nomination of the Greek patriarch Gennadios to the head of the oecumenical patriarchate. Istanbul became in 1517 the seat of the Califat after the conquest of Egypt by the Othomans and the transfer of the symbols califales to the imperial capital which is Istanbul. However, the title of caliph was carried by the sultans and an institution califale as such existed forever separately apart from the official system. The caliphate was abolished in March 1924 by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk.

Within this same framework, an apostolic Armenian patriarchate is also established in 1461 per order of the Mehmet sultan. The orthodoxe Bulgarian exarchat had as an Istanbul head office between 1870 and 1912.

In 1492, following the authorization of the sultan Bayezid {{II}}, Istanbul accommodated many Jews persecuted by the Spanish Inquisition and driven out Spain by Isabelle the Catholic. The city always shelters the most important Jewish community of the country (: 22000 people on: 25000). The community has sixteen synagogs (of which largest is Névé Shalom and oldest is Ahrida), a hospital (Gold haHayim), a school (UOML), an old people's home and a bilingual weekly magazine (Turkish-ladino): Şalom. The chief of the community is the chief rabbi Isaac Haléva.

The city also shelters the majority of the Sabbatéens of Turkey, in favor of Sabbataï Tsevi.

The night of the April 24th 1915, during which two hundred and forty intellectuals Arménie NS were stopped in Istanbul, marks the beginning of the Armenian genocide and the quasi-disappearance of the Christian minorities of the Ottoman Empire. This date is commemorated each year in memory of the victims (300 000 to 500.000 depending on the Turkish State, 1.200.000 according to the majority of the Western historians, 1.500.000 depending on the Armenian State). However, the Armenians stambouliotes were not concerned with the deportations, following the example those which lived with Smyrna or Alep. Today Armenian community of Istanbul, evaluated with: 60000 people, has thirty-three apostolic churches, twelve Protestant Catholic churches and three churches; two hospitals (Sourp Pirgitch and Sourp Agop), two orphanages, nineteen schools and three newspapers in Armenian language, of which Jamanak (founded in 1908) currently the oldest daily newspaper of Turkey. The leaders of the community are the apostolic patriarch Mesrob II Mutafyan (since 1998) and the catholic archbishop Hovhannes Tcholakian (since 1961). The immigration of the Armenians of Turkey towards the foreigner lost his massive character in the years 1980 and their number was stabilized.

The Greek community has 95 churches, twenty schools, a hospital and two daily newspapers (Apoyevmatini and Iho), but this community disappears gradually. One counted: 100000 Greeks in 1927, but today their number is of: 2500, with the result that the majority of their institutions really do not function. Their spiritual leader is the oecumenical patriarch Bartholomée {{Ier}} (since 1991).

The seat of the Turkish orthodoxe Church, not recognized, is located in the district of Galata.

The city also counts a syriaque community jacobite evaluated with: 10000 people. One also counts chaldéens, mélkites, Bulgarian catholics, catholic géorgiens of reduced number. The Poles, taken refuge in the middle of the 19th century following Russian repression in their country, created in 1842 the village Polonezköy (Adampol) in the area of Istanbul, on Asian bank. The population of this “Polish” village hardly exceeds a hundred people currently.

All the Moslem groups are also represented, although the great majority is sunnite.

Geography

Situation

The old city is located on the strait of the the Bosphorus which separates the Asia from the Europe, and connects the Black Sea to the Marmara Sea. Nowadays the modern city is much larger and covers at the same time banks Asian and European of the Bosphorus.

Seismicity

The town of Istanbul is located very close to the Faille north-Anatolian. This one is an active fault which already produced several very destroying seisms at the time contemporary. The study of the local séismogénèse lets fear with a strong probability that an important seism strikes Istanbul during the next decades. Moreover, because of the situation of the city at the seaside, a fatal Tsunami is to be feared. In addition, the difficulty in making observe rules of construction Parasismique S in Turkey makes think that the majority of the dwellings, in particular those of the popular quarters, will not resist. The city knew several important seisms of which particularly those of 1509 (called Small Apocalypse), 1763, 1894 and 1999.

Economy

Although Istanbul lost the statute of capital of Turkey to the profit of Ankara in 1923, it does not remain about it less the major city of Turkey on the economic plan, industrialist, educational and cultural, and the most important center of import-export. It also shelters the largest commercial port of the country.

Transport

Istanbul has two railway stations, Sirkeci (on European bank) which goes back to 1889 and Haydarpasa (on Asian bank) which goes back to 1909.

The city is connected to the other centers of agglomeration of the country by a developed highway network. Two bridges on the Bosphorus (built in 1973 and 1988) ensure the connection between the parts European and Asian of the city as with the remainder of the country.

Two international airports (Atatürk on European bank and Sabiha Gökçen on Asian bank) connect Istanbul to the majority of the big cities of the sphere and the main cities of the country.

There exists a line of subway, a line of Light subway ( hafif subway using the Flexity Swift of Bombardier Transport), a tram and two funiculars, as well as lines of suburban trains.

The municipality also manages a system of boat-shuttle (compound of the vapors, hydroplanes and ferry boats) between the unloading docks located on the two sides of the Bosphorus to connect the bordering agglomerations between them.

The construction of a railway tunnel under the Bosphorus, baptized Marmaray, is in hand since 2004. The inauguration is planned for 2010.

Tourism

Istanbul, with more than 3 million visitors per annum, is an important tourist destination. The city was selected like cultural capital of Europe for 2010.

Sport

Istanbul was candidate the organization of the OJ of summer, lost with the plays of 2000, of 2008, and of 2012, it will be candidate with the plays of 2016.

Principal monuments of Istanbul

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