Constantinople (Queen of Cities)

Constantinople, officially known as the Republic of Constantinople, is a sovereign city-state straddling both sides of the Bosporus Strait across the continents of Europe and Asia, making it the sole transcontinental city-state. The country has a land area of 5461 km2 and a population of 10.8 million, it is also the world's largest third-most densely country. Constantinople borders Turkey on both in the east (in Anatolian side) and in the west (on the European side). Though the city is ethnically diverse as its populations consists of Turks, Greeks, Armenians, Jews and others Constantinople has, since its independence, adopted a policy of monoculturalism that led to the formation of a separate French-speaking Constantinopolitan identity.

Constantinople's history dates back to the 7th century BCE when Ancient Greek settlers founded the colony of Byzantium. In 330 CE Byzantium was refounded by Roman emperor Constantine the Great as it became the new capital for the Empire. The city would become the largest in the world and a major commercial, cultural, economic and political center during the years of the Eastern Roman/Byzantine Empire. The city would gain a cosmopolitan character that it would preserve until the modern day. When the Christian Byzantine Empire fell to the Ottomans in 1453, it became the capital of a new Muslim realm. Over this period of 1500 years and three empires Constantinople remained one of the most important cities in the world.

In 1878 the Great Powers of Europe decided to divide the dying Ottoman Empire between themselves with Constantinople and its surroundings being amalgamated into the Constantinople International Zone, which was placed under international administration. The city would undergo significant modernization until it eventually gained self-government under Franco-British protection in 1925. The city's complete independence would be achieved with the adoption of the 1943 Constitution and the declaration of the Republic. After a period of one-party rule the country would return to democracy in the aftermath of the Tulip Revolution of 1975. Since then it Constantinople joined the European Union and adopted the Euro as its currency.

While the country stepped on the path to industrialization in the years of the International Zone, Constantinople's industrial sector would ultimately enter a period of continued growth in the 1940s thanks to government and foreign investment into the economy. This allowed the country to become the richest in the region in the midst of a period of sustained economic growth that lasted until the 1970s. By the 1980s the country liberalized its economy and adopted free-market, policies that turned it into one of the world's primary centers for the finance and technology industries. The country has a highly developed economy with the world's 5th-highest GDP (PPP) per capita and its 27th-highest HDI. This boom of the financial sector has largely been attributed to the influx of foreign capital as the country became a major destination for the relocation of multinational companies as Constantinople has been identified as a tax haven. In addition, the booming tourist industry led to additional economic growth as 15.6 million foreign visitors came to Constantinople in 2018. Today, Constantinopolitans enjoy a high standard of living as the country ranks high in key metrics such as quality of life, personal safety, education and healthcare.

Constantinople is a unitary parliamentary republic with a unicameral legislature and a legal system based on civil law. The country is a multi-party democracy with free elections and low levels of corruption. The country is an active member of the international community as it is a member of the United Nations (UN), the European Union (EU), the Eurozone, the International Organisation of La Francophonie (OIF), the World Trade Organization (WTO), the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) and the G20, as of 2022 Constantinople is a candidate for NATO membership.

Name and etymology
The first known name of the city is Byzantium (Greek: Βυζάντιον, Byzántion), the name given to it at its foundation by Megarian colonists around 657 BCE. Megarian colonists claimed a direct line back to the founders of the city, Byzas, the son of the god Poseidon and the nymph Ceroëssa. Modern excavations have raised the possibility that the name Byzantium might reflect the sites of native Thracian settlements that preceded the fully-fledged town. Constantinople comes from the Latin name Constantinus, after Constantine the Great, the Roman emperor who refounded the city in 324 CE. Ḳosṭanṭīnīye (Ottoman Turkish: قسطنطينيه) and İstanbul were the names used alternatively by the Ottomans during their rule.

History
The city of Constantinople was founded as an Ancient Greek colony in the 7th century BCE by settlers from the city of Megara. In 324 CE the city was refounded by Roman Emperor Constantine the Great before becoming the capital of the Roman Empire in 330. For the next 1600 years, the city would become an imperial capital and one of the most important cities in the world as it grew into a beacon of the Silk Road. As a center for trade, Constantinople became one of the most cosmopolitan cities in the world.

Constantinople International Zone
By the late 19th century the Ottoman Empire was in a period of steep decline as the country was in bankruptcy and its ethnic minorities embraced nationalism and demanded independence. These factors led to the outbreak of the Great Eastern Crisis (1875-78) that saw revolts and wars in the Balkan provinces, which resulted in a Russian intervention in the Russo-Turkish War of 1877-78. Despite their previous attempts to preserve the existence of the Ottoman Empire, the complete victory of Russia and its allies and the Ottomans’ recent sovereign default caused Britain and France, the Empire’s main protectors and creditors, to turn on their pro-Ottoman stance. At the Congress of Berlin the Great Powers carved up the remaining lands of the Ottomans, which included the creation of an internationally administered zone that would encompass Constantinople. This zone would be jointly administered by representatives of the Great Powers (Austria-Hungary, France, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, Russia, and the Ottoman Empire) and an elected representative of the citizenry. The zone officially came into existence on October 1, 1878.

Modernization under foreign rule
Under new administration the city entered a period of rapid transformation that transformed it into the world’s largest multicultural hub. Constantinople witnessed the construction of new infrastructures such as railroads, tram lines, paved roads, water supply network, telephone service and a metro system. At the same time the city’s cultural life flourished thanks to the International Zone’s protections on freedoms, leading to the establishment of new theaters and magazines. Throughout this period, the city also became a tourist hotspot and retirement destination for many Europeans.

The modernization of the city did not prevent it from undergoing significant political upheavals over the course of its existence. Major crises erupted during the Hamidian massacres in the Ottoman Empire (1894-97), the Young Turk Revolution (1908), the Italo-Turkish War (1911-12), and the Balkan Wars (1912-13). These periods of tensions were marked by street fights, assassinations of prominent ethnic leaders, riots, and mass demonstrations. In the end the Board managed to maintain its authority by enacting a state of emergency, violently suppressing protests and riots, and arresting and jailing political agitators. In addition, the Board cracked down on socialist activity by limiting the right to strike and expelling socialist exiles from the International Zone.

The economy, which was initially placed under the control of the Ottoman government, was gradually liberal economic policies of Constantinople led to an economic boom as foreign investment poured into the city’s burgeoning industrial sector, leading to a continued growth in international trade. This economic growth was fueled by an exponential rise in foreign investment into the city’s burgeoning industrial sector. However, the industrialization of Constantinople caused widespread resentment as it placed the economy under the complete control of Westerners, thus fueling nationalist backlash against the quasi-colonial order. Moreover, the poor working conditions and low wages led to the emergence of various socialist movements.

The late 19th and early 20th centuries marked a period of rapid demographic growth for the city, which was fueled by waves of migration from neighboring Anatolia, Greece, and the Russian Empire as the city’s growing industrial sector led to the arrival of those that sought to escape the agrarian societies of nearby countries. Between 1880 and 1914, the city welcomed hundreds of thousands of refugees (mostly Armenians and Jews) and economic migrants (mostly from Greece and Turkey). As a result, the population of the International Zone grew from 1.1 million in 1881 to more than 2 million in 1911. These migrants often settled in large shantytowns on the outskirts of the city. These shantytowns, being socially and ethnically segregated, became a breeding ground for both ethnic nationalism and socialism.

The rise of ethnic nationalism in the Balkans and the poverty experienced by many industrial workers led to the emergence of new groups in the city. On one hand, some wanted to consolidate their ethnic communities by forming various nationalist organizations, on the other hand emerged the cosmopolitan and progressive League of Friendship of Nations (LAN), led by a wave of intellectuals from the city’s numerous ethnic communities. The LAN argued for the full independence of Constantinople, democratization, intercultural exchange, universal French-speaking education, increased secularism, industrialization, and neutrality in foreign affairs.

Great Disturbance
Three decades of continuous modernization and economic growth came to an end as the countries of origin of Constantinople’s various communities went to war. The Italo-Turkish and Balkan wars led to clashes between local Christians, Muslims, and Western Europeans. These conflicts were drawn on ethnic and class lines, dividing the city into different groups. The tension that built up during the Italo-Turkish War came to a head during the outbreak of the First Balkan War. In what became known as the Red Year, a wave of riots, political assassinations and terrorist attacks that hit Constantinople between November 1912 and October 1913.

Constantinople barely recovered from the destruction of the Red Year before being engulfed in a new crisis due to the breakout of World War I. As the Great Powers were engulfed in war, the city’s administration came to a standstill. In November 1914, the entry of the Ottoman Empire into the war marked the end of the International Zone in all but name as British, French, and Russian garrisons took over governmental buildings and expelled German, Austrian, and Turkish bureaucrats to their homeland. Soon, the Entente Powers approved the election of a prefect (Konstantinos Spanoudis) and a city council (Metropolitan Council) that would be tasked with the administration of the city. The Great War was a dark period in Constantinople’s history as the city found itself under siege. Beginning in January 1915, the city was surrounded by the Ottoman Army and cut off from land communications, only surviving because of the British and Russian navies that sent in food and established communications (telephone and telegraph) with the outside world. On numerous occasions, the city barely escaped mass starvation and capture, especially after the end of Russian participation in the war.

The Long Siege solidified the nascent Constantinopolitan identity, as those that supported the Ottomans either fled or were arrested while those that remained gained a sense of belonging to a cosmopolitan society. This unity was symbolized by the formation of the Constantinopolitan People’s Militia (MPC), a military unit that gradually gained prominence in the city’s defense as it exponentially grew in number. In addition, the citizens organized themselves to distribute food and clothing as the Allied bureaucracy did not have enough manpower. Throughout the Siege, most industrial needs of the city were met by local factories, demonstrating the rise of the city’s industrial sector. The end of the war did not mark the end of the Great Disturbance, as the continued conflicts in neighboring Turkey and Greece brought on growing ethnic tensions and economic disturbances. The Great Disturbance only ended with the tragedy of the population exchange between Greece and Turkey in 1923-24, with millions being forced to leave their homes to migrate to the other side. Located in between Greece and Turkey, Constantinople received a large number of refugees. Most of these refugees were Greeks from various urban areas in Anatolia, with a lesser number of Turks and Armenians also fleeing to the city. The arrival of hundreds of thousands of dissatisfied people flared up ethnic tensions in the city, leading to riots and street fights.

The emigration of a third of the city’s Turkish population during the war, coupled with the arrival of around 500,000 refugees in Constantinople radically transformed the demographics of the city as Turks no longer constituted a plurality of the population, now being slightly outnumbered by Greeks. In addition, the wave of Armenian, Greek, and Russian refugees turned Constantinople back into a predominantly Christian city. This demographic shift allowed for the liberal cosmopolitan League of Friendship of nations to gain popularity among the city’s native population, resulting in growing demands for demands for independence.

Acquisition of self-government
The growing demands for self-determination and the role of the MPC in the defense of the city forced the hand of the British and French administration. The rising popularity of the League of Friendship of Nations among the city’s elites positioned them as the leaders of a Constantinopolitan self-determination movement. Negotiations on the future status of Constantinople took place between 1920 and 1925, resulting in the Constantinople Agreement on March 5, 1925. The Agreement resulted in the proclamation of the Sovereign City of Constantinople on March 6. The new state would be self-governing in all domains except for international affairs, which would be jointly administered by Great Britain and France on its behalf.

The government of the new Sovereign City was designed as a directorial presidential republic with a bicameral Parliament (constituted of a Chamber of Nations and Chamber of Deputies), a model that was a near-copy of Switzerland’s model of government. The Constitution of 1925 was inspired by Western European democracies, establishing a strong democracy, and guaranteeing individual rights and freedoms. This system revolved around consociationalism, as seats in the Directorate were distributed proportionally to Constantinople’s ethnic makeup.

Great Reforms
The establishment of a multi-party democracy did not bring peace to the divided city as infighting in the legislature resulted in increasing gridlock during the very first parliamentary term. As a result, the multi-ethnic parties merged into a united Citizens’ Front. Eventually, frustration with the lack of reforms and political gridlock led the Front to seize power by forcing a new electoral law that gave it a significant advantage over its political adversaries.

The Citizens’ Front one-party rule brought on the Great Reforms, a period of rapid modernization and secularization that impacted all aspects of life of the city-state. Beginning in 1935, the one-party government introduced social welfare, recognized equality between men and women, established a universal education system, reformed the country’s legal code, limited the influence of religion, normalized relations with neighboring Turkey, established various ethnic quotas, and secured the country’s full independence from the United Kingdom and France. Politically, the Great Reforms culminated in the country’s proclamation of independence with the adoption of the 1943 Constitution (May 24, now celebrated as Constantinople’s independence day).

The Great Reforms radically transformed the face of Constantinopolitan society as, over a short span, the previously cosmopolitan and traditionalist city morphed into a primarily French-speaking country with progressive values. As such, the Great Reforms are heralded as having ended the ethnic divisions and violence that had characterized the city-state for the previous fifty years while bringing it into the post-war era as a modern, progressive, and secular country.

Despite remaining strictly neutral throughout World War II, Constantinople was deeply affected by the economic crisis and the wave of (mostly Jewish) refugees that were caused by the war. While economically disastrous in the short term, the war ultimately led to a second period industrialization of the Constantinopolitan economy as the city-state’s needs would now be fulfilled by its domestic industries. By the late 1940s, Constantinopolitan industries began exporting manufactured goods abroad.

One-party rule
The end of the Great Reforms in the mid-1940s did not end the one-party rule of the Citizens’ Front as the party continued its domination of Constantinopolitan politics into the 1970s. Often characterized as a “soft authoritarianism”, the period of one-party rule was not marked by repressions or severe limitations on individual rights. In between the late 1940s and the early 1970s, the city-state experienced continued economic growth as it became the main manufacturing center in Eastern Europe and Western Asia.

The period of political stability ended with the Red Summer of 1968 when, influenced by student protests in France and Czechoslovakia, university students began to organize pro-democracy rallies and marches. The students were soon joined by trade unionists that demanded better working conditions and the adoption of more social programs. The protestors’ goals of political and social reforms were ultimately unsuccessful as the movement was defeated by a violent crackdown by the police and army. The violence of the government’s repression would ultimately lead to its downfall in the following decade, as many citizens felt that the violence that was against students and workers was unwarranted.

Modern era
The period of one-party rule ended with the Tulip Revolution in 1975. Opposed to increasing political repression and dissatisfied by the worsening economic crisis, citizens took to the streets throughout the spring of 1975, calling for democratization and the resignation of the Citizens’ Front government. Following unsuccessful attempts to retain its power, the Front would ultimately be forced to call for free elections, thus ending their 40-year long rule.

The newly democratic Constantinople went through a period of political turbulence and economic recession (1975-1978) which was succeeded by a PERIOD of left-wing rule under prime minister Djemal Erkmen. Throughout the 1980s, the government would introduce numerous left-wing measures that would expand social programs, nationalize banks and industries, and expand labor rights. One of the largest accomplishments of the Erkmen government was the adoption of the 1980 Constitution. Through the constitution, the country legalized abortion, decriminalized homosexuality, lowered the age of majority to 18 and enshrined the right to strike into the country’s constitution. Following the return to democracy the successive governments had to deal with a period of economic crises (1973-1975, 1980-1982). In response, the Erkmen government ramped up spending, which had the effect of bettering living standards for the population while significantly increasing the public debt.

The left-wing economic policies of the Erkmen government came to an end with the election of right-wing Costas Antoniou as prime minister in 1984 as he would launch the liberalization of Constantinople’s economy, which would be continued under his successors. These policies ultimately led to a new period of rapid economic growth as the city became the Eastern European/Middle Eastern headquarters for various American and Asian companies, which was helped by the accession of Constantinople to the European Union in 1999 and the Eurozone in 2002.

Constantinople’s economic growth came to an end during the Great Recession as the country dealt with the collapse of its property market bubble and a subsequent a banking crisis that required the government to rescue the major banks, a move that was funded by an IMF bailout that imposed strict austerity measures on the population. The crisis led to unemployment and fiscal austerity under successive governments, which would ultimately lead to the rise of populist movements throughout the late 2000s.

In the 2010s, Constantinople’s economy returned to record-breaking growth despite a period of political instability following the 2015 election. In recent years, the country has adopted various progressive policies including same-sex marriage and adoption while the city itself has seen an urban revival through the creation of new parks or bike lanes. Thanks to these new developments, Constantinople is growing into a center for foreign students or digital nomads from across Europe, Asia and Africa.

Government and politics
Main article: Politics of Constantinople

Constantinople is a representative democracy organized as a decentralized unitary parliamentary republic. The political system functions under the 1980 Constitution that was adopted via referendum after the country's return to democracy in 1975. The Constitution was heavily amended in 2017-2018 to reduce the powers of presidency, eliminated acting prime ministers and changed the process of dissolution of the Parliament. To amend the Constitution the Parliament must adopt the proposed amendments by a two-thirds majority in the Parliament (134 seats).

The President of the Republic is the country's ceremonial head of state, elected for a five-year term by the Parliament. The preisdent's powers are limited to the representation of the country on official occasions and in international affairs. As every law needs to be signed by the president they can withhold their signature if the proposed legislation is deemed unconstitutional. The President is responsible with appointing the Prime Minister on the recommendation of the Parliament. The president is also assigned with formally naming the country's government on the counsel of the prime minister

Executive power is exercised by the Government of Constantinople, headed by the prime minister (chief executive). The government represents the political leadership of the country and carries out its political agenda in domestic and foreign policies. The government and prime ministers are responsible to the legislature and thus can be dismissed at any moment through a motion of no confidence which forces the government to resign. As in other multi-party democracies the government is formed through the creation of coalitions between two or more parties in the Parliament.

The legislative power is presided by the 200-member Parliament of Constantinople, an organ that is elected via universal suffrage by using a system of proportional representation for a four-year term. The Parliament votes on and approves laws and constitutional amendments (two-thirds majority). Laws are subject to judicial review, even though this phenomenon is rare due to Constantinople's common law system. Since the restoration of democracy in 1975 the Parliament has often been prone to instability as only three legislatures ran to the end of their term and the country went through 17 elections and twenty prime ministers.

The adoption of new constitutional amendments in January 2022 implemented a possibility for direct democracy through popularly-initiated referendums. The citizens of Constantinople will therefore be able to propose legislation on the condition of collecting the signatures of 7.5% of the electorate within a three-month period. These referendums would need to obtain the approval of at least 40% of the electorate to enter into vigor.

In the most recent election four parties gained representation in the Parliament, the least amount of parties to enter Parliament since the 1998 election. Three parties form the government coalition the left-wing Justice Party, centrist Democratic Party and the green Live Better! while the right-wing Renewal Party represents the opposition.

Administrative divisions
As a city-state Constantinople is a unitary country with a single tier of local government. The country is divided into 20 boroughs (arrondissements), a number that will increase to 21 when the Pera, the most populous borough, will be split into two on June 1, 2023. These boroughs are split into two categories: 13 (soon-to-be 14) urban boroughs and 7 rural boroughs. Boroughs are governed by a Borough Council (conseil d'arrondissement) and an indirectly-elected Mayor, functioning as a parliamentary system. Since the adoption of the 1980 Constitution the boroughs enjoy large autonomy in their governance of local affairs. As such, the boroughs manage roads (excluding highways), urban development, registration of marriages and divorces, state housing, as well as most museums and hospitals. While, in theory, each borough has the power to manage its bus, subway and tram routes, these powers were delegated to the centrally organized Public Transportation Authority (RTC).

List of boroughs of Constantinople: