9 Istanbul/Constantinople(/etc.) that I had talked about making once, in February of 2019.
And now that the X countries format has somewhat revived I decided to actually make it.
Flags to the left are the national flags while the flags on the right are subdivision flags.
A1 Sublime State of Turkey, Constantinople Province: From my
"The Kaiser, The Tsar and the Springtime Revolution" thing. Did not join WW1. Regained Cyprus and the Dodecanese during the war. British Yemen (other than Aden), Kuwait and Bahrain gained in 1921. Adopted some measure of federalism in 1922. Sinai gained in 1926 and Oman (including OTL UAE and Qatar) in 1927. Some territory in Caucasia also gained peacefully from Russia in 1927. Ceded Gwadar to British Raj in 1928. Extended influence into Iran (1919-1960) and Afghanistan (1927). Fought a war with Egypt (1939-1940), annexing it. Also replacing the Egyptian influence on Sudan with Ottoman influence with the Khartoum Agreement (until the 2nd Khartoum Agreement in 1965). Ottomans would join WW2 against the Entente in 1941. West Thrace is retaken from Bulgaria as Ottomans join the war (Bulgaria was already under Allied/Russian occupation). While Russians, Germans and other European Allies were pushing back the forces of Regent Maurras and Caudillo Franco in Europe Ottoman forces would liberate Africa from the Entente (also providing their navy and Russian Black Sea Fleet to the naval war in the Mediterranean). In 1943 Ottomans would follow the example of Tariq ibn Ziyad and invade Spain. Liberating much of the country from the Falangists (thought Navarre and Asturias would be taken by UBSC rather than the Ottomans). At the end of WW2 Algeria and Djibouti are annexed by the Ottomans while Ottomans also assume protector status over the International Concord Transitional Authority of Central Africa (Central African Republic, Chad and Darfur). Ottoman Empire is also accepted as a part of the Forum of Great Powers while also developing Nuclear Weapons in 1955. Algeria and Egypt gained independence from the Ottoman Empire while remaining in personal union in 1963. Hejaz-Levant becomes an independent nation in personal union in 1965. Union of Arab States becoming an independent realm in personal union in 1970, the official name of the nation being changed from "The Sublime Ottoman State" to "The Sublime State of Turkey". Djibouti was ceded to Ethiopia in 1971 and Egypt would become a republic in 1973. Turkey became a member of the European Council in 1987. From 1996 to 1998 Turkey was the protector nation for the International Concord Transitional Authority of Eritrea. Constantinople also houses the International Concord Headquarters.
A2-Rumelian Empire, Constantinople Province: Based on
this (I have changed the borders some but not sure I posted the newer version on the forum). It is an unitary state. The POD is during the Cem vs Bayazid civil war, which happens as OTL but Cem and his descendants stay alive. Blue in flag represents the Greeks and green represents the Bulgarians. The Empire is a British Dominion but with hereditary Governors-General who are the Caliphs of Islam and the OTL main branch of the Ottoman Dynasty. British royal family descends from Cem (trough a Mercenary who converted to Protestantism marrying Queen Elizabeth I). Rumelian Empire is a decent place to live but somewhat on the front-lines of "Cold War" with the conservative/authoritarian monarchies in the Balkans (reactionary monarchies are one of the two main rivals of the British Commonwealth and allies) and the Socialists across the Black Sea (the other main rival).
A3-Rumelian Federation, Constantinople Capital District: Based on
this thingie. America's greatest ally in the Middle East and the Balkans, a nuclear power, one of the world's greatest economies and militaries; the Rumelian Federation. Its creation lies in the demise of its predecessor; the Ottoman Empire. Rumelia was created by the stalemate between the Young Turk Movement and the absolutist Ottoman Sultan Abdul Hamid II. Before 1908 Ottoman Empire was named "the Sick Man of Europe" despite managing to onto their European territories by giving the Serbs and the Bulgars autonomy along with crushing the Greek rebels. In 1908 Sultan ordered a return to absolutism and Sharia instead of the constitution. In an effort to return the constitution the Young Turk Movement along with the local military forces in Macedonia (center of the Young Turks is Thessaloniki) marched on the capital. while seeing success they couldn't make the Sultan agree with them so Abdul Hamid retreated to Anatolia where after a few months of staring at each other from the each side of the Bosporus the sides agreed to a peace. The Ottoman Empire would proceed to lose Libya to the Italians and stay an absolutist state that is undeveloped. On the other side of the Straits the Rumelian Federation was founded with Turkish and Greek being official languages with a secular constitution and its flag with its red, white, blue; its cross, crescent and the three stars symbolizing the Turks, the Greeks and the Slavs (Serbian and Bulgarian principalities overthrown and replaced with autonomous republics.). The nation would modernize under the rule of the Committee of Union and Progress (CUP) and began to democratize. During the Great War the Federation stayed neutral at the start but would join later on the Entente's side against the Central Powers. Autonomous Republic of Serbia would gain the territory of Vojvodina, Croatia and Slovenia would become Autonomous Republics of the Federation. A new star was added to the flag separating the Bulgarians from the rest of the South Slavs. Capital was moved from Thessaloniki to Constantinople and the Ottoman Monarchy was restored in a purely ceremonial and religious role (as they are still the Caliphs of Islam). the Kurdistan region became a Anglo-Franco-Rumelian condominium which was divided into three regions where one country would be more prominent than the others. Mustafa Kemal (a war hero) would be elected prime minister instead of Enver Pasha despite both being from the same party (CUP) in year 1925. he would go on to introduce Greek alphabet for Turkish and Slavic languages in order to make everything in one alphabet and gave women the right to vote. Later he left CUP and created the social democratic (and republican of course) Republican Peoples Party (RPP) other large parties are the far-left Rumelian Socialist Party (RSP), the liberal Freedom and Accord Party (FAP), the monarchist Ottoman Party (OP) and the several different national parties. During his second term (election of 1930) he passed the surname law and thew hat law. the Federation westernized and new stars for Slovenes, Bosnians, Croatians and Serbians were added to the flag. During World War Two Rumelia stayed neutral until Operation Barbarossa. Much of the European territories were occupied by the Axis though after the Battle of Stalingrad Rumelians begin to push the Axis back. After the End of the war İsmet İnönü (Mustafa Kemal's successor after his death in 1938 and taking over his term and being elected in 1940 as the head of the national unity government of RPP, CUP, FAP) becomes a national hero (which means the RPP spin-off Democratic Party is nipped in the bud by the RPP-FAP coalition). Hungary was divided into a Communist Peoples Republic of (East) Hungary and the democratic Republic of (West) Hungary and the Rumelian and the Syrian Kurdistan join Rumelia as an Autonomous Republic with western parts of it (mostly populated by Turks) is annexed as a province (Antioch-Cilicia). Iraqi Kurdistan becomes a condominium of Rumelia, UK and Iraq. Before the Iraqi revolution against the Hashemite monarchy the Condominium was divided between an independent Kurdish republic and Iraq. Internal borders in Europe were redrawn and three new stars were added in the flag symbolizing the Kurds, the Arabs and Albanians. The Federation later joined the EU and NATO and developed nuclear weapons. National flag is already explained in the preceding write up and as to explain the flag of the subdivision but with the stars replaced by a sunburst and the bottom quarters of red and blue replaced with purple (which symbolizes the Byzantine/Roman history of the city).
B1-League of Most Serene City States, Marmara Republic, İstanbul Province: From a
"post-post-apocalypse" I made a while ago. The apocalypse in question is unexplained because I wanted the coastlines to be the same and the major cities (that would get nuked in a nuclear war) to still be important. The apocalypse caused the collapsed most governments. People began rebuilding by first establishing local governments. A new Most Serene Republic of Venice was established in Venetia which was able to quickly establish some control on Dalmatia. Similarly, a Serene Republic of Genoa was established. As well as other nations. Venice, Genoa, Monaco (has continuation of government), Malta (also has continuation of government), Rhodes (officially "Polis of Rhodes") and the Sicilian Republic were the founding members. The 7 stripes represent both the founding members and the "7 Seas". And 39 stars for the current members. Republic of Marmara was established following the unification of Republic of Thrace (formerly "Turkish Provisional Government (Edirne)") and the İstanbul Emergency Government (with İstanbul as the capital). Marmara republic was one of the early members joining in the League with the Baltic, Americas, non-Mediterranean Africa and Indian Ocean + Singapore members joining later. The League is rather prosperous (one of the larger economies) and has a strong navy but a quite small military other than that. It is considered one of the 3 "pseudo-states", being a loose confederation of city states. Marmara Republic has a large Greek minority but is otherwise still largely Muslim Turkish. There is still a strong political group advocating for annexation into the 2nd Republic of Turkey. Marmara Republic is one of the more prosperous members in the League and İstanbul is one of the top cities in the League. Of the flag of the Marmara Republic, black and green are mostly from the flag of the short lived Turkish Republic of Western Thrace, red and white (and the star and crescent) are from the current Turkish flag and the gold and blue are inspired by the flag of the International Straits Commission.
B2 Republic of Turkey, İstanbul Province: Almost OTL. Under a constitution similar to OTL 1961 constitution. But there is one main difference. In OTL first the Monarchy was abolished and the Caliphate was abolished sometime after the foundation of the Republic. So there was a short time period were Turkey was a Republic but also had the Caliph in the nation. ITTL the Caliphate is not abolished and Turkey remains a parliamentary republic. So Turkey is kind of a constitutional diarchy with the Caliph and the President sharing the head of state position (thought the Caliph does not have any official political power. But he does have high amounts of soft social power). Again, overall in a better position than OTL.
B3-Federal Republic Turkey, Bosporus (Boğaziçi) Federal District, İstanbul Province: From
something I posted a while ago. The 1961 Constitution of Turkey ITTL also makes Turkey into a federal country. Some powers of the provinces and some powers of the central government was given to the newly established states (thought the provinces/municipalities retain most of their OTL powers). State containing mostly Kurdish areas (Autonomous State of Kurdistan) has more autonomy than the other states. Both the Straits are under Federal Districts rather than the States. Both the two districts and the 13 states are further subdivided into provinces (thought both the Federal Districts only have 1 province within themselves). Turkey is more prosperous and democratic than OTL and remains a parliamentary republic and still had a senate as an upper house along with the Grand National Assembly. The flag of the district was made with the intention of symbolizing the Straits and the District being on two continents.
C1-Russian Federation, Federal City of Tsargrad: Russian Tsars long wanted to reclaim Constantinople for Christianity. Eventually they managed to take the city from the Ottomans. The city would became known as Tsargrad and be settled with Russians with the Muslims being exiled. However, eventually the Russian Empire fell to a communist revolution. The city was taken by revolutionaries as well and renamed Revolutsiyagrad. The city was a part of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic. After the fall of the USSR the city remained a part of the Russian Federation as a city of federal importance like Moscow and St. Petersburg. The flag and Coat of Arms of the city were established after the first conquest by the Russian Empire. It was based on the Byzantine tetragrammatic cross but on purple rather than on red as traditional because of its Imperial symbolism.
C2-The Roman Empire, Free Imperial Capital City of Constantinople: Eastern Roman Empire as the HRE. I had posted maps (and monarch lists) for this before but I can't really be bothered to find them. Various Imperial member states are hereditary monarchies under several different dynasties, with some having the position of "elector". The Empire has declined somewhat having lost almost all of Asia (other than just Chalcedon) by 1300 and losing even that small toehold by 1450. In 1499 a dispute between the mostly Orthodox Empire and the few Catholic members (including the then Emperor Ferdinand of Aragon and Sicily (also Count of Thessalia). This led to Sicily, Venice and Malta to leave the Empire as well as Catholic monarchs of mainland members being replaced by more native leaders (for example: Elector of Thessalonika was Philip "the Handsome" the Duke of Burguny who was replaced by the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople as elector due to this Catholic crisis). The Empire itself would be abolished in 1532 with the Imperial Territory of Constantinople being absorbed by the neighboring land of the then Emperor Constantine XII Palalaigos Archduke of East Thrace and Count of Montenegro (whose seizure of Montenegro was the reason for the abolishment of the Empire). The city itself (as well as East Thrace) would eventually fall to the Osmanli Sultanate in 1553.
C3-Panhellenic League, the Polis of Byzantium: A Phoenix adorns the banner of the largely confederal league consisting of many small city states and few somewhat larger kingdoms. The League is a strong regional power but can't be said to be the strongest. Byzantium is not the largest or the richest city in the League but it is well to do. As the gateway to the Black Sea it is quite the important city.
