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Description
So anyways, this is my lovely İstanbul. (Or Byzantium or Constantinople, depending on the time period.) Basically some strange combination of Turkey, Roma-jii-chan, and Greece. He talks like Turkey, because, of course, he is Turkey's lapdog city. (...Even if he's been around longer...)

He's somewhat of a cocky bastard, although with reason. He's been the capital of four different empires, the Roman Empire, the Byzantine Empire, the Latin Empire, and the Ottoman Empire.

Currently, while no longer Turkey's capital, he is still its biggest city with a population (as of 2008) of 12,697,164, and is the fifth most populous city in the world. He is also the only city in the whole world that is part of two continents, Europe and Asia, since İstanbul is on both sides of the Bosporus, which is thought of as the boundary between them.

Let's see, other character descriptions. He's kind of dense, but is almost always happy. Generally a nice person. But I think I might describe him as "badass." ...Yes, somehow that all works together =A= He also seems to be a bit of a pedo and a creeper, if only because of the fact that he's been around for so long, and has therefore seen many little baby countries in his time... And I still need to think up more OTL

Oh, and the star and crescent were a symbol of Byzantium, possibly since the 300s BC. Therefore, of course, I had to put them on his shirt, since not only is it Turkey's flag, it's also his symbol. But boring clothes are boring =.=

...He's flicking you off right now because he can. I don't know, somehow it seemed to fit XD

Anyways, technically Byzantium (İstanbul's name then) has been around since 667 BC, so he's... Really old XD Older than Turkey O.o I mean, the Roman Kingdom itself started 753 BC, so İstanbul isn't much younger...

Now, before I go too in depth on the history, another note. Turkish has two different "I"s, a dotted one and a dotless one. The dotted one has the normal English lowercase "i", but for the uppercase version it has "İ". The dotless one is "ı" in lowercase, but the uppercase version looks like the normal English "I". So "İstanbul" is technically supposed to have an uppercase dotted "i", rather than "Istanbul", as it is written anywhere besides Turkey. And since I like how the uppercase dotted "i" looks, I'm using that ;D

Okay, past here is a brief history of İstanbul, starting from 667 BC, so read on if you want...

Byzantium was founded by the Greeks in 667 BC on the European side of the Bosporus. (That would mean he was founded by Mama Greece, but since Mama Greece has never appeared, I gave him Greece's curl plus slightly longer hair on the sides.)

In 196 AD, it was taken over by the Romans. (Hence all the Roma-jii-chan attributes, including the ability to be idiotic enough to have multiple ahoge.)

In 330 AD, Constantine (a Roman emperor) made it the capital of the Roman Empire and it was renamed Nova Roma, New Rome.

After Constantine's death in 337, it was once again renamed to Constantinople. In 395, when the Roman Empire completely split, it became the capital of the Eastern Roman Empire (Byzantine Empire.)

By the 1300s, Constantinople was in rather bad shape from the Byzantine Empire's increasing isolation and bankruptcy. Eventually, on May 29, 1453, Sultan Mehmed II captured Constantinople and made it the capital of the Ottoman Empire.

In 1923, after the fall of the Ottoman Empire and the founding of the Republic of Turkey, the capital was moved to Ankara. Constantinople's name was officially changed to Istanbul in 1930, although that had been the name in Turkish for centuries.

...If there are any errors in this, please let me know =A= I hope there aren't... If there are, blame Wikipedia
The face is there because I felt like it -shot-

Really, I just wanted more practice drawing different expressions, which is why there are so many XD

If anyone really wants to know what the Japanese says, just ask XD

...Long artist's comment is very long =.=

Axis Powers Hetalia © Hidekaz Himaruya
İstanbul's design © me ;D

Description
So anyways, this is my lovely İstanbul. (Or Byzantium or Constantinople, depending on the time period.) Basically some strange combination of Turkey, Roma-jii-chan, and Greece. He talks like Turkey, because, of course, he is Turkey's lapdog city. (...Even if he's been around longer...)

He's somewhat of a cocky bastard, although with reason. He's been the capital of four different empires, the Roman Empire, the Byzantine Empire, the Latin Empire, and the Ottoman Empire.

Currently, while no longer Turkey's capital, he is still its biggest city with a population (as of 2008) of 12,697,164, and is the fifth most populous city in the world. He is also the only city in the whole world that is part of two continents, Europe and Asia, since İstanbul is on both sides of the Bosporus, which is thought of as the boundary between them.

Let's see, other character descriptions. He's kind of dense, but is almost always happy. Generally a nice person. But I think I might describe him as "badass." ...Yes, somehow that all works together =A= He also seems to be a bit of a pedo and a creeper, if only because of the fact that he's been around for so long, and has therefore seen many little baby countries in his time... And I still need to think up more OTL

Oh, and the star and crescent were a symbol of Byzantium, possibly since the 300s BC. Therefore, of course, I had to put them on his shirt, since not only is it Turkey's flag, it's also his symbol. But boring clothes are boring =.=

...He's flicking you off right now because he can. I don't know, somehow it seemed to fit XD

Anyways, technically Byzantium (İstanbul's name then) has been around since 667 BC, so he's... Really old XD Older than Turkey O.o I mean, the Roman Kingdom itself started 753 BC, so İstanbul isn't much younger...

Now, before I go too in depth on the history, another note. Turkish has two different "I"s, a dotted one and a dotless one. The dotted one has the normal English lowercase "i", but for the uppercase version it has "İ". The dotless one is "ı" in lowercase, but the uppercase version looks like the normal English "I". So "İstanbul" is technically supposed to have an uppercase dotted "i", rather than "Istanbul", as it is written anywhere besides Turkey. And since I like how the uppercase dotted "i" looks, I'm using that ;D

Okay, past here is a brief history of İstanbul, starting from 667 BC, so read on if you want...

Byzantium was founded by the Greeks in 667 BC on the European side of the Bosporus. (That would mean he was founded by Mama Greece, but since Mama Greece has never appeared, I gave him Greece's curl plus slightly longer hair on the sides.)

In 196 AD, it was taken over by the Romans. (Hence all the Roma-jii-chan attributes, including the ability to be idiotic enough to have multiple ahoge.)

In 330 AD, Constantine (a Roman emperor) made it the capital of the Roman Empire and it was renamed Nova Roma, New Rome.

After Constantine's death in 337, it was once again renamed to Constantinople. In 395, when the Roman Empire completely split, it became the capital of the Eastern Roman Empire (Byzantine Empire.)

By the 1300s, Constantinople was in rather bad shape from the Byzantine Empire's increasing isolation and bankruptcy. Eventually, on May 29, 1453, Sultan Mehmed II captured Constantinople and made it the capital of the Ottoman Empire.

In 1923, after the fall of the Ottoman Empire and the founding of the Republic of Turkey, the capital was moved to Ankara. Constantinople's name was officially changed to Istanbul in 1930, although that had been the name in Turkish for centuries.

...If there are any errors in this, please let me know =A= I hope there aren't... If there are, blame Wikipedia
The face is there because I felt like it -shot-

Really, I just wanted more practice drawing different expressions, which is why there are so many XD

If anyone really wants to know what the Japanese says, just ask XD

...Long artist's comment is very long =.=

Axis Powers Hetalia © Hidekaz Himaruya
İstanbul's design © me ;D