To Greeks, there is only one great city

From Mr Evangelos T. Pantelidis.

Sir, I have read with interest A. Nurhan Becidyan’s very informative letter (August 30). May I make a small correction concerning his closing sentence?

He writes: “One thing they did not realise was that Istanbul itself was derived from a Greek name (Stanbolin).”

In fact, the name Istanbul probably derives from the Greek “is tin Poli”, which means “to the Polis” (city). When travellers were asked: “Where are you going?” they would answer: “Is tin Poli” – “to the Polis of Constantine”. For Greeks, “i Polis” always refers to the great city: Constantinople.

Another view is that the name Istanbul is just a shortened form of Constantinople, which was hard to pronounce.

Evangelos T. Pantelidis,

Athens, Greece

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