Re-establish Byzantium?

[:) Smiley]

There's oil in Turkey, no?

New Texas here we go

[Ted Striker]

Oh my gawd that was so original!!!!



not

[Ancyrean]

Originally posted by Dr Strangelove


No I mean the massacre of the Byzantines inhabiting Constantinople when it fell in the 15th century.

Actually, at the time of the conquest the population of Constantinople was tiny already. I quote this following passage from Steven Runciman's "Fall of Constantinople", describing the state of the city before the siege (pp. 10-11). Brackets are mine:

"The city itself, within its fourteen miles of encircling walls, had even in its greatest days been full of parks and gardens, dividing the various quarters. But now [1453] many quarters had disappeared, and fields and orchards seperated those that remained. The [Arab] traveller Ibn Battuta in the mid-fourteenth century counted thirteen distinct townlets within the walls. To Gonzales Clavijo [Ambassador of Don enry III of Castille and Leon, on his way to Samarkand] in the first years of the fifteenth century, it was astounding that so huge a city should be so full of ruins; and [French nobleman and traveller] Bertrandon de la Broquiere a few years later was aghast at its emptiness. Pero Tafur in 1437 remarked on its sparse and poverty stricken population. In many districts yiu wiuld have thought that you were in the open countryside, with wild roses blooming in the ehdgerows in spring and nighthingales singing in the copses

At the south-east end of the city the buildings of the old Imperial Palace were no longer habitable. The last Latin Emperor [from the line of those that captured the City with the 4th cursade in 1204, before losing it to the Byzantines again in 1261] in his extremity, after selling ,ost of the city's holy relics to Saint Louis and before pawning his son and heir to the Venetians, had stripped the lead off all the roofs and disposed of them for cash. Neither [later Byzantine Emperors] Michael Palaeologus nor any of his successors had ever had the money to restore them. Only a few of the churches were maintained in its grounds..."

Philip Mansel's "Constantinople: City of World's Desire" provides another statistic (p. 3):

"...After the city reverted to the Byzantines in 1261, repeated defeats of the Byzantine Empire by its Muslim enemies, and the civil wars between rival emperors, had reduced the city's population from a peak of 400,000 inhabitants to about 50,000 Greeks - or 'Romans', as they were still proud to call themselves. By 1400 it had shrunk to a collection of small towns, sepereated by farms and orchards...

p.5 (in conjunction with molly bloom's post): "...After its fall, in accordance with Islamic law governing treatment of a city which had refused to surrender, the Sultan's troops were allowed to enslave and deport around 30.000 Christian inhabitants. Thousands more [died in the first three days after the conquest]..."

On the other hand, Mehmet the Conqueror wanted his new capital to be a world city of unparalelled grandeur, so in the years following the conquest, he brought (in addition to Turkish settlers) many thousands of Greeks and Armenians to Istanbul, to revitalise crafts and trade in the City. Therefore, ironically most of the later Christian community of Istanbul (Greeks and Armenians)were descendants of settlers brought over from the Anatolian and Balkan holdings of the Ottoman Empire, their numbers reaching a number far outstripping the Christian population of the city before the conquest.

Unlike their contemporaries in Europe, Ottomans took pride in the multiculturalism of their Empire, saw the diversity of peoples they ruled over as a strength. Until the advent of nationalism, that is...

[Ancyrean]

Originally posted by MarkG
well, i'm already on greek-turkish borders, it wont be hard to start the campaign

You're much closer to home than me . From 10.000 kms, borders seem less meaningful to me in what I consider to be "our (meaning all of us, Turkish Greek, Bulgarian, Serbian etc) corner of the world"

[Ted Striker]

Ancyrean, tell me how to meet hot Turkish women.

thanks

[Ted Striker]

Originally posted by Ancyrean


Mehmet the Conqueror

http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/players/3547

[Ancyrean]

Originally posted by Ted Striker
Ancyrean, tell me how to meet hot Turkish women.

thanks

Girls from Istanbul and Izmir...Man, Izmir regularly produces beauty paegeants on the national and international level

>Must...resist...threadjacking...post pictures of...Petek Dinçöz<

[Ancyrean]

Originally posted by Ted Striker




http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/players/3547

That's what I'm talkin' about

[Ted Striker]

Oh you've done it now!!!!!

Turkish girls are the hottest on the planet. Nobody else even comes CLOSE.

[CharlesBHoff]

The Byzantium Empire was dead already after the 4th cursade by the Franks from Europe. The ott acturally honour all they treathy they have have with Byzantium Empire. The last empour of Byzantium free the Truk from all treathy that stop them from takeing the city, I think he want Byzantium to go down fighting instead of dyeing slowly.

[CharlesBHoff]

Originally posted by Ted Striker
Oh you've done it now!!!!!

Turkish girls are the hottest on the planet. Nobody else even comes CLOSE.

Is she was sister or one of your 4 wifes.

[Az]

Is she was sister or one of your 4 wifes.

[CharlesBHoff]

Also very time than cursade was called in Europe the local jews where target by the cursader also as well the jews in the middle east where target by the cursader.

[Az]

Petek Dinçöz

[Bereta_Eder]

dp