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Is Turkey Renaming Istanbul Constantinople?
foreignpolicy.com ^ | SEPTEMBER 4, 2009 | NICK DANFORTH

Posted on 09/08/2009 7:28:05 AM PDT by Nikas777

Is Turkey Renaming Istanbul Constantinople?

Chances of Turkey and the Kurds reaching a rapprochement are at their highest in 25 years. But what does that mean for Turkification -- and what concessions are the Turks willing to make?

BY NICK DANFORTH | SEPTEMBER 4, 2009

Last month, Turkish President Abdullah Gul broke a long-standing national taboo: He called the remote village of Guroymak by its Kurdish name, Norshin.

The president's opponents say renaming Istanbul Constantinople on highway signs will inevitably follow. Or worse. For many Turks, saying Norshin leads to saying Kurdistan, and saying Kurdistan leads to recognizing an independent Kurdish state stretching across Iran, Iraq, and southeastern Turkey.

After a 1980 military coup, Turkey "Turkified": It banned the Kurdish language, imposed new Turkish place names, and famously declared that Kurds were actually "mountain Turks."

(Excerpt) Read more at foreignpolicy.com ...


TOPICS: History; Humor; Religion
KEYWORDS: constantinople; godsgravesglyphs; greeks; istanbul; megaliidea; turkey
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1 posted on 09/08/2009 7:28:05 AM PDT by Nikas777
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To: Nikas777

Why did Constantinople get the works?


2 posted on 09/08/2009 7:29:14 AM PDT by Constitution Day
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To: Constitution Day

That’s nobody’s business but the Turks.


3 posted on 09/08/2009 7:30:59 AM PDT by Above My Pay Grade
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To: Nikas777
They got the idea from Craig Ferguson of the Late, Late Show.
4 posted on 09/08/2009 7:31:25 AM PDT by PugetSoundSoldier (Indignation over the Sting of Truth is the Defense of the Indefensible)
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To: Nikas777

They were talking Turkey.


5 posted on 09/08/2009 7:31:49 AM PDT by pnh102 (Regarding liberalism, always attribute to malice what you think can be explained by stupidity. - Me)
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To: Constitution Day
Even old New York was once New Amsterdam
Why they changed it I can't say
People just liked it better that way

Istanbul was Constantinople
Now it's Istanbul, not Constantinople
Why did Constantinople get the works?
That's nobody's business but the Turks

Leni

6 posted on 09/08/2009 7:34:38 AM PDT by MinuteGal (Hey, Dum-Dem..........Are You Better Off Than You Were Nine Months Ago?)
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To: Nikas777

Yeh ! And tell’um we want the Hi-Ya So-fee-ya back as a Christian Church Too !...LOL...


7 posted on 09/08/2009 7:34:47 AM PDT by litehaus (A memory tooooo long)
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To: Above My Pay Grade

Even old New York was once New Amsterdam.


8 posted on 09/08/2009 7:36:10 AM PDT by Constitution Day
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To: Above My Pay Grade

Evr’y gal in Constantinople
Is a Miss-stanbul, not Constantinople
So if you date in Constantinople
She’ll be waiting in Istanbul


9 posted on 09/08/2009 7:37:08 AM PDT by A_Former_Democrat
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To: A_Former_Democrat
The Four Lads,
1953
10 posted on 09/08/2009 7:38:59 AM PDT by Eric in the Ozarks
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To: Eric in the Ozarks

They Might Be Giants,
1989


11 posted on 09/08/2009 7:40:17 AM PDT by dfwgator
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To: Eric in the Ozarks

Indeed. I heard that song sparingly while growing up in your state. I confess to cheating with Google this a.m. :)


12 posted on 09/08/2009 7:41:27 AM PDT by A_Former_Democrat
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To: A_Former_Democrat
I remember hearing it on FEN out of Tokyo in the 1950s.
13 posted on 09/08/2009 7:47:00 AM PDT by Eric in the Ozarks
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To: dfwgator

14 posted on 09/08/2009 7:48:39 AM PDT by stormer
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To: dfwgator

Was that really 20 years ago?????

It boggles the mind.


15 posted on 09/08/2009 7:50:10 AM PDT by dangerdoc (dangerdoc (not actually dangerous any more))
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To: Nikas777

Istantinople
Constanbul
Istanbulople
Conistan


16 posted on 09/08/2009 7:57:13 AM PDT by nuconvert ( Khomeini promised change too // Hail, Chairman O)
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To: Nikas777; a fool in paradise

That’s nobody’s business but the Turks!


17 posted on 09/08/2009 8:00:18 AM PDT by Revolting cat! (Let us prey!)
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To: MinuteGal
St. Menehould was one of the folks French explorers and mapmakers liked to name things after (probably because she had 5 sisters who were also venerated so if you needed to name something else nearby you had a handy source of names). The town of St. Menehould is located in the Argonne. The first 6 families to be settled on Manhattan Island were Wallonian ~ that is, from the Argonne. The Wallonians built the wall that became Wall street.

If you go looking for quick references on this you'll find that Henry Hudson is given credit for discovering Manhattan in 1609 - September 12, 1609 to be exact.

The French had already landed just up the coast at St. Sauveur in 1598, and had for most of the preceding century used spots from Norfolk to Boston for drying and salting fish to be shipped back to Europe.

How they missed Manhattan is a doggone good question. Earlier the Portuguese had made a permanent settlement far to the North in Labrador (taken down by the spanish about 1538), and there are another 29 permanent settlements of various quality that were set up BEFORE 1600 on the East Coast ~ and only a couple of them have been studied extensively.

Worth noting ~ by 1620 there were already 20,000 European and African settlers in what is now Maryland ~ and no one has any idea where they came from, or when they settled. Pirates had made earlier settlements up and down the coast throughout the 1500s.

How all these folks missed Manhattan........?

18 posted on 09/08/2009 8:01:34 AM PDT by muawiyah
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To: Nikas777

THIS JUST IN: New York is being renamed New Amsterdam!


19 posted on 09/08/2009 8:02:20 AM PDT by Revolting cat! (Let us prey!)
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To: Nikas777

“...and famously declared that Kurds were actually “mountain Turks.””

One Kurd leg is shorter than the other?


20 posted on 09/08/2009 8:10:33 AM PDT by Buck W. (The President of the United States IS named Schickelgruber...)
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