Let's Make Constantinople Capital of the World Again!

[Chrispi]

How likely is it that the seat of the League of Nations would move from Geneva to Constantinople? That said, I don't know of a better location for the World Moot than the Intercontinental City. (And I'm not the only one, see links below.) Certainly, it would give the Entente greater incentive to resist Turkish independence, at least in the Zone of the Straits.

Between Russian and Greek immigration to the City, and just plain prestige, what would be the effects of such a move to internationalize and cosmopolitanize this new Byzantium?

References:
https://books.google.com/books?id=PMFCAQAAMAAJ
https://books.google.com/books?id=6a85AQAAMAAJ
[URL]https://books.google.com/books?id=wsMpAAAAYAAJ[/URL]
https://books.google.com/books?isbn=0230628087
http://www.dlir.org/archive/orc-exhibit/items/show/collection/6/id/11108

 

[Minchandre]

It's not happening without the Young Turks' approval, for much the same reasons that Lausanne succeeded Sevres. And the Young Turks probably won't like it. Yes, the move grants Turkey some prestige and a measure of legitimacy, but it also invites a lot of foreign eyes and influence at a time when Turkey was withdrawing in on itself. Calling Turkish foreign policy "isolationist" in the early 20s isn't quite accurate, of course, but it also isn't quite inaccurate. This is a time of consolidation, a time of looking inward, of redefining the core of the Ottoman state as being a Turkish national state instead. And while hosting the League of Nations is a nice idea, especially since it definitely helps establish Turkey as being fully equal to any European state, I'm not sure how well the internationalization of the just-yesterday-Sublime-Porte will be viewed by the folks trying to set up Ankara as capital; especially if it ends up drawing lots of European diplomats and becoming just as international as OTL Geneva. Especially coming on the heels of the "international Straits zone" of Sevres.

On the other hand, it could be a very effective way to signal that Istanbul is not capital of Turkey, and is "unimportant" to Turkish nationalism, I guess.