Istanbul [English]

ISTANBUL

A city that seduces!
Istanbul embraces two continents with one arm reaching out to Asia and the other to Europe.
Istanbul is the one of those unusual cities that merges all the colours of the world into one.
Constantinople, Asitane or Istanbul, this city is both Eastern and Western -a city of the world. It is never easy to discover a completely unique city.
The former capital of three empires, Roman, Byzantine and Ottoman, Istanbul today honours and preserves the legacy of its past while looking forward to a modern future.
Like all major capitals, Istanbul makes your head spin with all its history, its size and its multitude of choices. If you are looking forward for a modern city, Istanbul has shopping, music and international food. If you want history there are museums, mosques, Ottoman cuisine. Istanbul is like a woman who has been conquered but still remains her charms.
Istanbul has always been an important settlement because of its geography. On two continents with the Bosphorus between, its strategic importance was understood by the Romans and Septimus Severus took it in 196 AD. When ınternal problems split the Romans, Istanbul was divided, too. Constantine called the new Christian capital Constantinople. During the Middle Ages, Constantinople had been Christandom's the most important culture and art center and from time to time as the most important political and economics center. Constantinople 's population increased dramaticly. Lots of nations took steps in the direction of conquering it but they could not. Between 1204 and 1261 the city was the center of the Latin Empire. While entering the 14. century Ottoman began to endeavor to assume. In 1453 Constantinople was compounded to the Ottoman Empire by the II. Selim from the Egypt state of war, sacred trust were brought and the city took the functıon of being caliphate's center , too. For a long time the city was named Contantinople. "Eis ten polin" that used a lot in every day language (which means through the city, in Greek) changed into Stimbol, Estanbol, Istambol and at last Istanbul at Ottoman term.
Istanbul was in safe for a long time under Ottoman domination. Until the 19. century the most important events were Janissary Insurrections, earthquakes that caused a lot of damages and fires. 19. and 20. centuries were the most surging periods of Ottoman Empire. Events that were experienced on those periods debilitated Istanbul as well as Ottoman Empire. With the 1. World War, Istanbul was actually occupied by Entente Powers on 15-16 March, 1920. Turkish National Assembly was established in Ankara on 23 April, 1920, Turkish National Assembly told that Sultanate and caliphate were parted from each other and Ottoman Empire came to an end. Upon Turkish military unit entered Istanbul, they rescued it from occupied powers. Then Ankara was proclaimed as a capital city on 13 October, 1923. Ant thereupon Istanbul lost its function of being capital city that lasted for many centuries. With the abolition of the caliphate, Istanbul lost its speciality of being caliphate center.
The main development of Istanbul has begun after the Republic. The ındustrial revolution, in the west showed its effects in Istanbul, so many factories has been established there and soon it has become at the leading industrial center. Today most of the products are produced here and distributed to other cities. Moreover, since it is a coastal city almost all of business transactions (import/export) are performed here. On the other hand since many people migrated to this city its populatıon has increased and reached up to 10 million.
Back to its history, Istanbul was known as the cradle of education and after the republic it has continued this mission. Today there are about 20 universities which have an important effect on education in Turkey. Those universities are Bahcesehir, Beykent, Bogazici, Dogus, Fatih, Galatasaray, Halic, Isik, Istanbul, Istanbul Bilgi, Istanbul Kultur, Istanbul Teknik, Koc, Maltepe, Marmara, Mimar Sinan, Sabanci, Yeditepe, Yildiz Teknik.
As for health care, Social Security Hospital, Numune, Haseki, Vakif Gureba, Zeynep-Kamil hospitals are only a few to mention. Many people who look for care come to those hospital from all over the cities in Turkey.
Turkey's press and broadcast world's heart beats at Cagaloglu. Nearly all of the newspapers, magazines, publishing houses, printing houses, national press and news agencies are located there.
The increased population caused a lot of problems such as urban problems, heavy traffic, air pollution, noise pollution etc.
Especially, the government realized these problems in 1980s and has begun to take measurement for these problems. During 1980s many infra and superstructures were done.
To sum up, although Ankara is the political capital , Istanbul is still capital of production, economy, culture, arts and lifestyle.
Apart from its natural beauty and its special strategic position, hosting two empires as a capital for 1500 years and being the center of two religions have attained most of the important features to Istanbul, which cannot be seen in any other cities in the world.