BACKGROUND The Ottoman conquest of Istanbul and why for Erdogan it is a big deal
Europe
29.05.2016
By our dpa-correspondent and Europe Online auf Facebook posten Auf Twitter posten
Istanbul (dpa) - In its final days, Constantinople was a shadow of its former glorious self, destined to fall into the hands of a new master.
Once the largest and wealthiest city in Europe, serving for more than 1,000 years as the capital of the Byzantine, or Eastern Roman, Empire, it had been ravaged, including in a devastating sacking by Crusaders from Western Europe in 1204.
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