GC completed with Russia

[The Witch-King]

True. Consider also that "Istanbul" is merely a different way of pronouncing/writing "Constantinople", and you will realise that the name has never changed at all. It just took a Turkish form.

Look:

i - STAN - - BUL
con - STAN - tino - POL -is

(Compare with München=Munich=Monaco, for example. Same name, different languages)

The Ottomans never changed the citys' name - they kept referring to it by its greek name as they considered themselves the rightful heirs of Byzantium (and indeed of Rome as a whole).

The name 'Istambul' is a product of the nationalist reforms of Kemal Attatürk in the 1920s.

 

[The Witch-King]

Does anyone else here like that song, by the way? The one by They Might Be Giants...