Nach der osmanischen Volkszählung im Jahr 1910 war die Hälfte der Bevölkerung von Istanbul christlich (überwiegend griechisch und armenisch).
Als ich zwischen den Armeniern und Griechen gehörten, aber ihnen gestohlen wurde, frage ich mich immer, ob der Völkermord, der Bevölkerungsaustausch und die systematischen Diskriminierungen gegen unser Volk (Armenier und Griechen) nicht passiert sind. Wie würden Istanbul und unsere Gemeinden heute sein?
https://i.redd.it/ae1svzuynoqe1.jpeg
Von zavenbiberyan0
6 Kommentare
Greetings from neighboring Turkey. Regardless of whether your opinions about Turkey are objective or not, I wanted to answer your question from a purely realistic perspective.
Millions of Turks and Kurds would still flood into Istanbul. Despite their large numbers, Greeks and Armenians would remain a tiny minority, as the city’s overall population would exceed 20 million. The share of secular parties in Turkey would be somewhat higher (assuming Istanbul remains part of Turkey), but overall, the city would be more or less the same as it is today, with more Greek and Armenian signs here and there.
Assuming Greeks had remained in Turkey, it would also mean that Turks in Greece would have stayed in northern Greece. In that case, their share of the population would have increased significantly, likely making 1 in 5 people in Greece a Turk. This could have led to a much greater cultural shift in Greece, given that the Turks of Greece were primarily rural and had higher birth rates, whereas the Greeks of Turkey were urban and historically had lower birth rates.
Nobody knows what would have happened then. This could have caused more instability in Greece and worsened relations between Turkey and Greece. There could also have been a potential „Turkish question“ in northern Greece, which would have been a significant challenge for the country.
Overall, the population exchange was more in favor of the Greeks, as it was initially proposed by Greek Prime Minister Venizelos and helped Greece become a more homogeneous country. Turkey also accepted it after years of internal ethnic conflicts.
Honestly? Complaining about Arab refugees and Kurds, and probably trying to immigrate to Europe. They’d also still be subject to Turkish anxieties in light of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and Israel’s meddlesome designs for the region.
Interesting how Eskişehir is spelled on the sign (would be read as „Eskee Shee-eh-heer“), where’d they get that „ee“ from? I wonder if it was pronounced like that in the Ottoman period.
Nationalism brought the end of this
alternative photo title: before the microbes invaded.
You mean Constantinople?
I had this fantasy when I was a child, 11 or 12 years old, that every neighbouring country of Turkey would form a big socialist federation. Socialist Federeation of Anatolia or something like that. Imagine Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Iran, Iraq, Syria, Cyprus, Greece, Bulgaria and Turkey together. We would literally be the 3rd superpower. No state religion, no borders. Now that I think about it, this might be the Great Ottoman indoctrination I got at school but hey… If only Ottoman Empire was a communist utopia…