Constantinople vs. Istanbul Meme: A City's Name Debate

This meme plays on a popular historical and cultural reference concerning the city now known as Istanbul. The visual features a character pointing towards an image of the modern city of Istanbul (recognizable by landmarks like the Süleymaniye Mosque and the Bosphorus), while speech bubbles indicate a playful disagreement. One bubble declares "CONSTANTINOPLE," to which another, originating from the direction of the city image, replies, "NOT WHAT I'M CALLED."

The humor and point of the meme stem from the fact that Istanbul was historically known as Constantinople for over a thousand years, serving as the capital of the Byzantine Empire before its conquest by the Ottoman Empire in 1453. Although the name "Istanbul" gradually gained prominence, it wasn't officially adopted as the sole name for the city until the Turkish Republic era in 1930. The meme cleverly illustrates the ongoing, often humorous, debate or insistence on using the older name by some, contrasted with the city's established modern identity. It's a nod to historical change and the way cultural memory interacts with contemporary reality.