to whom should Constantinople/Istanbul belong to

Originally posted by Leonidas Originally posted by Sun Tzu Plus the Greeks are known for their ability to fight against a larger force as they have too many times in history and emerge victorious. Greeks arent bullet proof and only have enough strength to defend against Turkey at best for the medium term. I suggest you look at some key numbers; costs of weapons and ammo, the number of men who turn 18 in both countries every year, the budgets that can practically be allocated to such an adventure. also assume you will need a combination of numerical superiority (as an attacker) and technological superiority (we have threads in here on both side). does Greece have both and if so can it maintain such a edge for how long? Im pretty sure i know what that answer is but maybe some other readers need to actaully think about this realistically in terms of modern warfare-current demographics. Seroroiusly, taking a city of that size would be militray suicide and a humanitarian nightmare that makes Grozny look like a entree serveing. Even if Greece has an edge on technology and numbers, a crazy government , and executed a perfect blitzkrieg style attack to cut through the thraki defenses .... it all goes to sht when you enter a state of urban warfare. The harm to the Churches and the Patriarch would be unbearable to those that want them to remain intact.

Look how difficult Baghdad is too hold with a population of ca. seven million people. Securing that many people in a city enviroment and pacifying it is extremely hard even with local support as that proves it with daily attacks, etc.

I think the Patriarch will be respected within his own country, and the Balkans as a whole will gain some freaking common sense and begin to heal rifts.

Originally posted by Ponce de Leon I am still saying that Spain has more right to this city than either Greece or Turkey. Just putting that out there

I think it should be Vatican

Is  there  any  oil  there? 

Here's an idea. Let a country neutral in this rule it as a free city. E.g. Britain. Not the USA, they can't rule their own country freely.

this is interesting. return all cities to the one who founded it. lets give K�ln (Cologne) back to Italy, Riga back to Germany, and the American east coast to England...

there would be major landshifts as well, Spain would abandon Iberia for the Italians and move into Latin America!


Edited by Temujin - 16-Feb-2008 at 18:58

Originally posted by Brit 456767 Here's an idea. Let a country neutral in this rule it as a free city. E.g. Britain. Not the USA, they can't rule their own country freely.

Why? It's not like Greece disputes the ownership....it's just a romantic longing for the "Capital of Christianity", shared not only by Greeks but by Russians, Bulgarians, everyone who was influenced by the Byzantine empire.

It should be noted that during the Balkan wars, the Bulgarian army headed straight to Constantinople, since Tzar Ferdinand fancied himself the throne of Tzarigrad, which failed and led to limited conquest of land in Macedonia, and the second Balkan war.

Originally posted by Brit 456767 Not the USA, they can't rule their own country freely.

And the award for most asinine comment goes to...

We rule our own country freely, how un-free is our ruling of the USA exactly. We have an electoral process, a parliament, a president, every state has individual rights to determine state policy, etc...

Do you mind explaining how?

That's how http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lr5DeJ3fv9w


Now, seriously speaking, I don't think Greece will ever capture Constantinople. Not because we can't, but as said already, there is no point in it.

So don't worry...

I watched that 5 second clip and I am still scratching my head 10 seconds later

All i see is a sign of a crecent moon, and a random guy running from out of the bushes