İSTANBUL

It is located to the northeast of the Anatolian Peninsula, between the Black and Aegean Seas, displaying the characteristics of a settlement formed as a result of a depression during the tertiary geological period and sprawling around the continents on either side of the straits, 32 km long by 700 m wide, linking the Marmara Sea to the Black Sea, and Halic/Golden Horn, 700 m wide. Thanks to this location the with lands on the Asian and European continents.

Throughout the historiy the area served as a crossing bridge between continents. The name of the city in the Scythian and Pelesgian language is "Asitana" meaning "olace of mother Ace". The city which was called Byzantine, Constantinopolis and Dersaadet then took on the name of Istanbul. Based on the works of art recovered during the excavations into the prehistorical period in Fikir Tepe and Üsküdar on the Asian shores and Kemerburgaz on the European shore the area was inhabited in the prehistorical era.The Scythians and Pelasgians having faith in Ace who came to the area in around 3000s B.C. and had a prehistorical life form of a tumulus and a cave first founded the Acropolis settlement of Askutra/Üsküdar meaning the "peninsular fortress of Adra" in memory of Adra, the man of the mother goddess, on the Hill of Üsküdar. Later on, they multiplied upon participation of the Etruscan, Trak and Pelasgian branches, of the Scythian tribes from the Balkans and they expanded their settlements towards both the Asian and European shores.

During the Hittite era in 2000s B.C. The area is mentionned of as Asitawanda. The dwellers of Asitana who took up sides with the Trojan Hector during the Trojan War in the 12th century B.C. multiplied upon the infulux of the Etruscan, Trak, Phrygian and other Scythian tribes and those returning from the Trojan war and established a settlement with the of Assa/Hisar (fort) on today's Hill Sarayburnu and settled down a geography commanding the straits and the Golden Horn. The double sided axe called Labyra used by the Scythian warrior women, also known as the Amazons, which the Scythian tribes believed to be sacred was depicted in the hand of Toro/Zeus, the Chief Bull God, upon the adoption of the patriarchal system. The city founded by them was therefore called "Labyrasantas" which first changed to "Byrasantas" and finally to "Bysans".

During the 7th century B.C. the Pelasgian branch of Magara came to the area along with their riches in order to set up a colony and was merged with locals. The city which was dominated by the persians in 513 B.C. and Traks in the 4th century B.C. subsequently fell under the rule of the Macedonians. The city which then was attacked by the Galatians gained an autonomous status during the Pax Romana era during which time it was adorned and expandedwith structures towards the western direction. In the wake of the division of Rome in two, the city which became the capital of the eastern Rome and called as Constantinopolis was exposed to the assuaults of Huns, Avars and Goths. After the vain attacks of the Huns, Bulgarians, Goths,Avars, Slavs, Kipchaks, Cumans and Pecheneks from the 4th century until the 6th century A.D., the citywalls were built during the reign of the Emperor Anastasius.

In the 6th century the Byzantines sent delegations to Turkistan in order to trade with the Gök Turk State founded in Turkistan and to research their cultural and scientific values. The commercial, cultural and kinship relations between the Byzantine State and the Khazar Turkish Empire established in the Euroasian steppes of the Northern Black Sea developed and emperors of Khazar Turkish origin such as the Empress Çiçek Hatun and khazar Leon had authoritative pover in management. The city which suffered the vain attacks of the Arab armies for several times after the 7th century subsequently went through the besieging attempts of the Bulgarians and Russians.Byzantine defended itself by was of various alliances with Turks, Pecheneks, Gaguaz, Kipchaks and Cumans who, descending from the Balkans, Had come down to the Byzantine borders after the 8th century. It gave them material aids and promises, encouraging them to convert into Christianity, and allowed them to pass to Anatolia. Of these warrior horseback riding Turkish branches using bows and arrows who were christianized "Turkopoles"regiments were set up and, thus, a combatant army established, in the eastern boundaries of Byzantium and the various areas of Anatolia.

When these Turkopoleis understood, during the Battle of Malazgirt waged against the Muslim Seljuk Turks in 1071, that the enemies of Byzantium were actually their brothers of the same origin, but of Muslim faith, they sided with the Turkish Seljuks, enabling them to win the battle and Anatolia to be Turkicized. During the Crusades, the city which allowed passage of the Crusading Armies was occupied by the Venetian Crusading Navy in 1204, after which Venetians came to the area and established a Latin Kingdom. Mihail Palailogos, Head of the Kingdom of İznik established by Lagkarites in iznik, saved istanbul on August 15, 1261. The city, which eliminated the Turkish sieges subsequently developing, was captured through a prodigious plan of the Ottoman Padishah Sultan Mehmet the Conqueror, after a siega lasting 53 days, by the hauling of his fleet over the Hill of pera into the Golden Horn, which had been closed with iron chains at the mouth, on May 29, 1453. Thus, the existence of the East Rome/Byzantine Empire was ceased and all works of art, faiths and the inhabitants were taken under protection by the Ottoman Turks.

The Ottomans let the "Orthodox Patriarchate" of the East Rome located at Fener continue with its activities in exactly the same manner. Besides this, they, at a later period, permitted establishment of the Turkish Orthodox Patriarchate under the leadership of Baba Eftim who sided with Atatürk during the Turkish War of Independence, the Turkish-Khazar Synagogue for the Turkish Jew society and the Armenian Patriarchate in Samatya by the Armenians brought from Anatolia, thus respecting the survival of all faiths. İstanbul which was the capital of the Ottoman Empire is today one of the mystical cities in the world where nature and history and east and west merge into one other.