Name another thing that matters, in this context. Something that invalidates the rights of the majority, as is what you need to do to justify a Greek conquest of Constantinople.
Who should Constantinople have been given to after WWI?
- Thread starter Hierosolyma
- Start date
Hierosolyma
Banned
Geographical concerns - The Bosphorus is a sensible border, and makes it harder for either Greece or Turkey to invade each other in the future.
Historic justice - The Turkish theft of Constantinople in 1453 was unjust. This is a chance to right a longstanding historic wrong.
Religious significance - Constantinople is the headquarters of the Greek church
Genocidal character of Turkey - Look what they did to the Armenians before the war. Mixed areas should go to the neighboring Christian states because of Turkey's track record.
Create Istanbul as a free city state.
Excise and divide the old city into Christian Orthodox and Islamic holy cites ala The Vatican.
This is where the head of each church resides (Patriarch of Constantinople and the Caliph). - Call it Constantinople
These religious city states are bankrolled by the Great Powers.
No one is allowed to buy land there, you rent if you really really want to live in the seat of your religion.
Probably do the same with Jerusalem, Medina, Mecca, Vatican (this predates the Lateran treaty but similar idea), Canterbury etc.
Separate Religion from State.
Excise and divide the old city into Christian Orthodox and Islamic holy cites ala The Vatican.
This is where the head of each church resides (Patriarch of Constantinople and the Caliph). - Call it Constantinople
These religious city states are bankrolled by the Great Powers.
No one is allowed to buy land there, you rent if you really really want to live in the seat of your religion.
Probably do the same with Jerusalem, Medina, Mecca, Vatican (this predates the Lateran treaty but similar idea), Canterbury etc.
Separate Religion from State.
Completely ridiculous.
You don't right a wrong by committing a bigger wrong. Besides, these Turks did not conquer Constantinople and should not be punished for it.
Irrelevant. People's lives come before religious paraphernalia.
Before the war? Nothing particular notable then by colonial standards. During the war is when the atrocities occurred. In any case, the people of Constantinople committed no atrocities against the Armenians and should not be punished for them.
For as much of a Byzantophile I am, I voted for a Free City but would lean towards Turkey over Greece. If we're being technical, Istanbul/Constantinople hadn't been Greek-owned for little under five hundred years by the time World War 1 ended. Even disregarding that, you don't just objectively say a piece of land belongs to someone because of X reason without at least taking the opinion of the people leaving there into consideration. With a major Muslim population, it's unlikely that the people would want to be turned over to Greece. Even if the Muslim population is not entirely Turkish in nature, I doubt the Greek Muslims would either want to stay in the city or would even be allowed to stay since the Greek government classified them as Turks anyways (which puts the city most likely in majority Turkish control if you look at it from Greece's perspective) during the population exchange.
Saying that the Greeks have a large minority in the population of the city is fine and dandy but basing land ownership off of historical claim and cultural significance gets really tricky if both parties have claims to the territory. You cannot just disregard the claims of the other side.
Saying that the Greeks have a large minority in the population of the city is fine and dandy but basing land ownership off of historical claim and cultural significance gets really tricky if both parties have claims to the territory. You cannot just disregard the claims of the other side.
So we aren't going to mention that literally every territorial conquest of the era was essentially the same? Hell, if anything, things like the Massacre of Jerusalem were even worse and done by Christians.
It should have gone to the Soviet Union, along with the rest of Europe, as the tides of the workers revolution sweep across the world and do away with the old order of nationalism, capitalism and imperialism! 
Germaniac
Donor
Are you kidding me? Im genuinely disappointed that "giving" the city to anyone has a serious # of votes. Sorry to burst your bubble but the greeks are not better than the turks... they are not somehow more enlightened and worthy of the city than anyone else. Istanbul is Turkish and just because you fantasize about Greece somehow being the successor of the Byzantines it makes it ok? I mean this is ridiculous.
Indeed. If pursued to its logical conclusion, we all have to move back to the Olduvai Gorge.
Germaniac
Donor
The general jist of these threads op has made have seemed to be that clearly the Greeks being western and christian are superior to the muslim Turks (or muslims in general) while doing everything you can to not openly say it. Go back to CK2 and maybe read a book that challenges your beliefs before you are too far gone.
Indian national identity was based on the anti-colonial struggle and the desire to finally unite and being free of the 200 years of European dominance, so Portugal having Goa is, as you said, "a dagger at India's heart".
Indeed I wished the Indians has given the Goans a referendum to decide their future, but I was using his own arguments on the matter.
Given that you connect a Greek ownership of the region to a punishment for the locals, wouldn't same be true for a continued Turkish control of the city for the Greek part of the population too?
Someone should make a timeline in which the Byzantine Empire is restored by the Greeks, with some support of another nation of course. However, this timeline would be a deconstruction of all these Byzantine fantasies in that it shows all the evils and chaos that would have to be unleashed for such a thing to happen. Eventually, in this timeline, the new Byzantines would be regarded as this timelines Nazis, as in within Western culture, they are seen as a symbol of evil. Byzantine symbols have the same status in this timeline as Nazi symbols do in OTL. Being called Byzantine becomes synonymous with being called evil.
Germaniac
Donor
The level of genocide and ethnic cleansing needed to do this would put the Nazis to shame. This TL would be terrifying.
Would it? I mean in theory the numbers are pretty similar, so it would be similar to, not necessarily bigger.
That would be the point. To show what all these fantasies would truly entail if put to reality.