ASIANOVERLAND.NET SYDNEY TO LONDON  DAY 276/150/62: CONSTANTINOPLE TO ISTANBUL,  TURKIYE

 29 June and 18 November, 1980

At the end of WW1, the Ottoman Empire was partitioned by the British, French and Italians from 1 November 1918 to 1 November 1922. The partitioning was planned by the Allies in the Sykes-Picot Agreement, and the territories and peoples that formerly comprised the Ottoman Empire for four centuries, were divided by the victors. ….. for four years, until the successful Turkish War of Independence led by Attaturk (Mustafa Kemal).

 The Ottoman Empire had been the leading Islamic state in geopolitics, culture and ideology for four centuries. The partitioning of the Ottoman Empire after the war led to the domination of the Middle East by Western powers such as Britain and France.

The violent, arbitrary creation of protectorates in Iraq and Palestine, and the proposed division of Syria, was part of the larger “divide and rule” strategy of ensuring tension in the Middle East, requiring Western colonial powers (Britain, France and Italy) as peace brokers and arms suppliers.

The League of Nations granted the French Mandate for Syria and Lebanon, the British Mandate for Mesopotamia (Iraq) and the British Mandate for Palestine, later divided into Mandatory Palestine and the Transjordan.

The Ottoman Empire's possessions in the Arabian Peninsula became Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Kuwait, Bahrain, and Qatar.

As the Ottoman Empire collapsed, it signed the Treaty of Sèvres in 1920, which would have partitioned much of the territory of present-day Turkey into French, British, Grek and Italian possessions.

The Turkish War of Independence led by Attaturk, forced the Western European powers back to the negotiating table before the treaty could be ratified. The Western Europeans then signed and ratified the new Treaty of Lausanne in 1923, which founded modern Turkey.  An unresolved dispute between Iraq and Turkey over Mosul, was left as a festering wound.

The British and French partitioned Greater Syria between themselves as per their Sykes–Picot Agreement. The Balfour Declaration encouraged the international Zionist movement to push for a Jewish homeland in Palestine, further partitioning the already partitioned Palestine.

Insofar as the Western colonial partitioning was part of the larger “divide and rule” strategy of ensuring tension in the Middle East, it has been a complete success.

We drove through the old WW1 battlefields to Istanbul, where we stay at Camping Londra, towards the outskirts of Istanbul, a huge city. The drive into Istanbul each day is part and parcel of the Istanbul experience, complete with traffic jams.

We tour the famous Hagia Sophia Grand Mosque, formerly the Church of Hagia Sophia built in 537 as the patriarchal cathedral of the imperial capital of Constantinople. It was the largest Christian church of the eastern Roman Empire, the Byzantine Empire and the Eastern Orthodox Church.

During the Crusader Latin Empire from 1204 to 1261, Hagia Sophia became the Istanbul's Roman Catholic cathedral.

In 1453, after the Fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Empire, Hagia Sophia was converted into a mosque, lasting nearly four centuries until 1935, when it became a museum.

Built by the eastern Roman emperor Justinian I as the Christian cathedral of Constantinople for the Roman Empire between 532 and 537, the Hagia Sophia was the world's largest interior space and among the first to employ a massive dome. It is considered the epitome of Byzantine architecture, and "changed the history of architecture".

 In 1204, Haga Sophia was converted by the Fourth Crusaders into a Roman Catholic cathedral under the Latin Empire, before being restored to the Eastern Orthodox Church upon the return of the Byzantine Empire in 1261. The doge of Venice who led the Fourth Crusade and the 1204 Sack of Constantinople, Enrico Dandolo, was buried in the church.

After the Fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Empire in 1453, it was converted to a mosque by Mehmed the Conqueror. From 1453 until the construction in 1616 of the nearby Sultan Ahmed Mosque (the Blue Mosque), it was the principal mosque of Istanbul.

The Haga Sophia remained a mosque until 1931, when it was closed to the public for four years and re-opened as a museum in 1935 (PS and now a mosque again).

For our international night in Turkey, we dine at the Kervansaray Night Club Restaurant, a wonderful Turkish cultural experience, complete with belly dancers and other Turkish entertainment.

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