AHC/WI: British annex Constantinople

As far as I know, the Brits never had the old city in their colonial sights but the challenge here is to make Istanbul as apart of the United Kingdom as much as Gibraltar is today, by 1899.
Based on your POD, what effect would English control over the Bosporus have on the geo-political dynamics in the region?
 
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It would be more important to establish how the British got it in the first place and why. Better to keep the Ottomans intact and block the Russians from the Balkans, the Middle East and the Mediterranean. Maybe if the Balkans and Arabs revolt at the same time and Russia invades, Britain might be forced to make a puppet state on the Bosporus, but I doubt they'd be able to make it like Gibraltar. At best, it would be like Singapore or Hong Kong.
 
The Ottoman's cannot be supported, for whatever reason.

The Greek/Turkey equivalents cannot be trusted to not war each other if the other controls Constantinople. It's meant to be an international-esque city but it's owned and operated by the Brits, and eventually becomes as much a part as anything else.
 
The last two male members in the Ottoman dynasty are killed in 1808. The Ottoman Empire is split apart by the Russians, French, independent warlords and the Girays not to mention the ethnic groups chafing under Turkish rule. The British come to the conclusion that the Straits cannot be trusted to anyone and send the Royal Navy to seize Constantinople. This of course stains Britain's relations with everyone in the region but as the absence of British rule means someone else would have control over the City, everyone tolerates it.
 
Perhaps if the Russians were ever able to seize the city, Britain could occupy Gallipoli to control the chokepoint between Marmara and the Aegean. If they can't bottle the Russians in the Black Sea, at least prevent them from forcing their way into the Mediterranean. Then Britain could conquer Constantinople off the Russians in a subsequent war.
 
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