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Or you could just give them back their lands and autonomy?

You upset there's not a April 1st - National suck off an aboriginal while crying about how ebil you are day?

Let me know the day you want Constantinople returned.

It's Istanbul now, not Constantinople.

Yeah, cuz it was stolen. Demand Turkey give it back, along with all infrastructure built by them. No? Only goes one way?

Seemed to work for Israel.

Demand Turkey give it back to the descendants of Roman Imperial aristocracy?

That would be the Turks. You're demanding that the Turks return Constantinople to the Turks.

Well, no, that's just silly - but the Romans in Constantinople were more than happy to marry in to the new Ottoman dynasty. They were just so abandoned by Europe at that point, so left to fend for themselves, and the Ottomans were looking for legitimacy to their rule so they figured it was a good trade: the Roman lines could live on in Istanbul and the Ottomans got to claim that they had ascended to their rightful place as the continuation of the Roman Empire.

The Greeks will occasionally bitch about how Byzantinos was originally theirs, but that's a difficult claim to sort through - the Greek "identity" didn't really have a clear meaning until Thermopylae and we're talking about a city that was then part of Persia anyway. It's tenuous.

It's certainly not as clear cut as the aboriginal claims in Australia.

The Ottamans ended the Eastern Roman Empire, being Islamic Seljuk Turks who came from Central Asia. What they sought to continue was the Abbasid Caliphate.

Greek City States and whatnot including Thermopylae had their own culture and language prior to the Iranian conquest, and that was for just a century, so part of Persia in terms of conquest and rule but not identity.

Anatolia was also part of the Iranian Empire, and previous to them was an assortment and then you have the Hittites.

The Ottomans didn't originally seek to continue Rome but upon capturing Constantinople they decided to pursue that claim, pretty much to avoid and moot this exact conversation. And as I say, the Byzantine nobility took that offer. Ottoman rulers from that point on could trace their family tree back to Augustus himself!

So make no mistake, the Turks very much see themselves as the heirs of Rome and can make that case.

Ok, I see what you're saying.

I had also forgotten to add that what I know is skimpy, lacking in much of the finer details.

I forgot to uv everyone's later comments as well.

Hmmm, I suppose the sack of the city by crusaders didn't help with that but I guess the nobles got off better than those Greeks mass raped, enslaved or slaughtered.

The nobles ALWAYS get better off. I can't think of a single time in history when they didn't. Maybe some of the Mongolian campaigns where they butchered the nobility to expedite the annexation process but it's not like a lot of the common folk enjoyed a peaceful transition either.

Sulla? Although that obviously wasn't foreign conquest.

Arguably, I suppose so, yes.