In article <1993Apr20.143453.3127@news.uiowa.edu> mau@herky.cs.uiowa.edu (Mau Napoleon) writes:  >Instabul was called Konstantinoupolis from 320 AD until about the 1920s. >That's about 1600 years. There many people alive today who were born in  >a city called Konstantinoupolis.   I know it doesn't make sense, but since when is 'Napoleon' about sense, anyway? Further striking bigoted and racist attitude of  certain Greeks still exists in our day. Most Greeks insist even  today, that the 537 year-old capital of the Ottoman Empire should  be called not by its rightful name of Istanbul, but by its half  a millennium-old moniker 'Cons*(whatever).'  Everyone knows that New York City was once called 'New Amsterdam' but Dutch people do not persist on calling it that today. The name  of Stalingrad too is long gone, replaced by Volgagrad. China's Peking traded its name for Beiging long ago. Ciudad Trujillo of the Dominican Republic is now Santa Domingo. Zimbabve's old colonial capital Salisburry became Harrare. These changes have all been accepted officially by everyone in the world.  But, Greeks are still determined on calling the Turkish Istanbul  by the name of 'Cons*.'  How can one explain this total intransigence? What makes Greeks so different from other mortals? 18-year-old questionable democracy? Why don't they seem to reconcile with the fact, for instance, that Istanbul changed hands 537 years ago in 1453 AD, and that this predates the discovery of the New  World, by 39 years. The declaration of U.S. independence in 1776 will come 284 years later.  Shouldn't then, half a millennium be considered enough time for  'Cons*' to be called a Turkish city? Where is the logic in the  Greek reasoning, if there is any? How long can one sit on the  laurels of an ancient civilization? Ancient Greece does not exist,  any more than any other 16 civilizations that existed on the soil  of Anatolia.  These undereducated 'wieneramus' live with an illusion. It  is the same mentality which allows them to rationalize that Cyprus is a Greek Island. No history book shows that it ever was. It belonged to the Ottoman Turks 'lock, stock and barrel' for a period of well over 300 years.  In fact, prior to the Turks' acquisition of it, following bloody naval battles with the Venetians in 1570 AD, the island of Cyprus belonged, invariably, to several nations:  The Assyrians, the Sumerians, the Phoenicians, the Egyptians, the Ottoman Turks, of course in that order, owned it as  their territory. But, it has never been the possession of the government of Greece - not even for one day - in the history of the world. Moreover, Cyprus is located 1500 miles from the Greek mainland, but only  40 miles from Turkiye's southern coastline.  Saddam Hussein claims that Kuwait was once Iraqi territory and the Greek Cypriot government and  the terrorist Greek governments think that Cyprus also was once part of the Greek hegemony.  Those 'Arromdians' involved in this grandiose hallucination should wake up from their sweet daydreams and confront  reality. Again, wishful thinking is unproductive, only  facts count.  As for Selanik,    <<Those Jews who survived these assaults in Southeastern Europe fled   particularly to Salonica, whose Jewish population increased substantially   as a result, from 28,000 in 1876 to 90,000 in 1908, more than half the   total population, though even there increased persecution by local Greeks   led many Jews to flee elsewhere in the Ottoman Empire, particularly to   the great port of Izmir.    Despite all the pressure from Ottomans and foreign Jews alike, the ritual   murders and other assaults by Christians on Jews went on and on. Greek   efforts to decimate the Jewish population of Salonica culminated in 1912   and 1913, following Greek conquest of Salonica during the first Balkan War,   when many of its Jews, were either killed or terrorized into leaving...>>    <<Though Greece was obligated by the post World War I treaties to allow   Jews and other minorities to use their own languages in education and to   practice their religions without hindrance, a law was issued in 1923   which forbad all inhabitants from working on Sunday, stimulating a new   Jewish exodus as it was intended to do. Between 1932 and 1934 there was a   series of anti-Semitic riots in Salonica, with the Cambel quarter, where   most of the remaining Jews lived, being burned to the ground. This   was followed by regulations requiring the use of Greek and prohibiting   Hebrew and Judea-Spanish in the Jewish schools. A start was made also   on expropriating the land of the principal Jewish cemetery in Salonica   for use by the new University in order to derive the Jews out [47]. By   killing and driving out large numbers of Jews, the Greeks left a   substantial Greek majority in the city for the first time, and starting   Salonica Jewry on the way to its final decimation by the Nazis during the   occupation of Greece starting in 1941.    Salonica and Izmir of course were not the only places of refuge for   Jewish refugees entering the Empire during its last century of existence.   Istanbul, Edirne, and other parts of Rumelia and Anatolia received   thousands more. Nor were Jews the only refugees received and helped by   the government of the Sultan. Thousands of Muslims accompanied them in   flight from similar persecutions wherever Balkan christian states gained   independence or expanded. The Russian conquest of the Crimea and the   Caucasus starting in the late eighteenth century, and particularly during   and after the Crimean War, combined with the same independence movements   in Southeastern Europe that had caused so much suffering and flight among   its Jews caused thousands of helpless, ill, and poverty-stricken Muslim   refugees to accompany them into the ever shrinking boundaries of the   Ottoman Empire, with the Istanbul government struggling mightly but vainly   to house and feed them as best it could. From 1850 to 1864 as many as   800,000 Crimean Tatars, Circassians, and other Muslims from north and   east of the Black Sea had entered Anatolia alone, as many as 200,000 more   came during the next twenty years, while 474,389 refugees entered in 1876-   1877 as a result of the Ottoman wars with Russia and the Balkan states,   with an equal number gaining refuge in the European portions of the   Empire.>>  [47] Robert Mantran, 'La structure sociale de la communaute juive de   Salonqiue a la fin du dix-neuvieme siecle', RH no.534 (1980), 391-92;   Nehama VII, 762; Joseph Nehama (Salonica) to AIU (Paris) no.2868/2,   12 May 1903 (AIU Archives I-C-43); and no.2775, 10 January 1900 (AIU   Archives I-C-41), describing daily battles between Jewish and Greek   children in the streets of Salonica. Benghiat, Director of Ecole Moise   Allatini, Salonica, to AIU (Paris), no.7784, 1 December 1909 (AIU   Archives I-C-48), describing Greek attacks on Jews, boycotts of Jewish   shops and manufacturers, and Greek press campaigns leading to blood libel   attacks. Cohen, Ecole Secondaire Moise Allatini, Salonica, to AIU (Paris),   no.7745/4, 4 December 1912 (AIU Archives I-C-49) describes a week of terror   that followed the Greek army occupation  of Salonica in 1912, with the   soldiers pillaging the Jewish quarters and destroying Jewish synagogues,   accompanied by what he described as an 'explosion of hatred' by local   Greek population against local Jews and Muslims. Mizrahi, President of the   AIU at Salonica, reported to the AIU (Paris), no.2704/3, 25 July 1913   (AIU Archives I-C-51) that 'It was not only the irregulars (Comitadjis)   that massacred, pillaged and burned. The Army soldiers, the Chief of   Police, and the high civil officials also took an active part in the   horrors...', Moise Tovi (Salonica) to AIU (Paris) no.3027 (20 August 1913)   (AIU Archives I-C-51) describes the Greek pillage of the Jewish quarter   during the night of 18-19 August 1913.  (AIU = Alliance Israelite Universelle, Paris.)  Serdar Argic