Istanbul

Istanbul is Turkey’s largest city and principal seaport, the former capital of the Byzantine and Ottoman empires, and the only major metropolis spanning two continents across the Bosporus (Britannica). Standard overviews miss that Istanbul is also the city where the real-life story behind the film Ayla: The Daughter of War closed its final chapter — and where, in 2025, that story was presented as an instrument of cinema diplomacy (Daily Sabah; Anadolu Agency).

Overview

Istanbul stands on a triangular peninsula between Europe and Asia, and for more than 2,500 years it has sat between the conflicting surges of religion, culture, and imperial power — one of the most coveted cities in the world for most of that span (Britannica). Seven hills rise within the old city’s walls, and it is Turkey’s economic center of gravity and its principal port; its historic core — the Hagia Sophia, the Blue Mosque, the Topkapı Palace quarter — has been a UNESCO World Heritage site since 1985 (Britannica). Legend traces Byzantium to Byzas of Megara, who built the town around 657 BCE; Constantine the Great dedicated it as his capital, calling it New Rome, in 330 CE (Britannica). Greek speakers’ eis tēn polin, “into the City,” became Istanbul; the Turkish Post Office made the name official in 1930 (Britannica).

The city where a true story closed

The Ayla story’s public rediscovery began in Istanbul: when Korean War veteran Süleyman Dilbirliği spoke at an Istanbul event marking the 60th anniversary of the war about the orphaned Korean girl he had cared for, South Korean officials began a search — and found her (Daily Sabah). She was Kim Eun-ja, the five-year-old Dilbirliği had found alone in the woods in 1950, named “Ayla,” and cared for at the Turkish garrison for 14 months before the war’s end separated them (Daily Sabah). In November 2017, weeks after the film’s debut, the 71-year-old Kim flew to Istanbul and visited the Haydarpaşa Numune hospital, where the 91-year-old Dilbirliği was being treated for respiratory failure (Daily Sabah). Istanbul’s culture-and-tourism head Coşkun Yılmaz, who accompanied her, told Anadolu Agency it was a “moving” moment of a daughter’s longing for her father, and a doctor said it was the first time in days the veteran had responded to anything (Daily Sabah).

A stage for film diplomacy

In December 2025, Istanbul hosted the institutional afterlife of the same story: the Film Diplomacy Conference 2025, themed “Building Diplomats Through Lens,” convened artists and filmmakers to explore cinema’s role in international relations through workshops, a 24-hour film challenge on peace, and award ceremonies judged by diplomats and directors (Yeni Şafak). Composer Burak Saygili argued that film has served diplomacy since the camera’s invention, warned that cultural diplomacy “should not turn into cultural imperialism,” and insisted modern diplomacy must work through digital channels (Anadolu Agency). The conference’s case study was Ayla: director Can Ülkay said it prompted audiences to research the Korean War on their own and noted how deeply Koreans love Turks (Anadolu Agency). Murat Emir Kaya of the AK Party’s Istanbul Youth Branch held up the film’s ants scene as successful diplomacy, saying it showed viewers the Turks went to Korea for peace, and that the film significantly increased cultural and diplomatic relations with South Korea (Anadolu Agency).

The crossroads city, in brief

The Bosporus is the channel connecting the Black Sea to the Mediterranean via the Sea of Marmara and the Dardanelles, and Istanbul commands both shores of it (Britannica). The narrow Golden Horn separates old Istanbul — Stamboul — from the “new” city of Beyoğlu to the north; the broader Bosporus divides European Istanbul from the Asian districts of Üsküdar, the ancient Chrysopolis, and Kadıköy, the ancient Chalcedon (Britannica). Beyoğlu has been the foreign quarter since the 10th century; Galata was the Genoese traders’ enclave before the Ottomans (Britannica). Today three suspension bridges (1973, 1988, and the Yavuz Sultan Selim Bridge of 2016) and two undersea tunnels — a passenger-rail line opened in 2013 and an automobile tunnel in 2016 — bind the European and Asian shores (Britannica). One statistic explains Istanbul’s memory-site role: Turkey lost 741 troops fighting in Korea under U.N. command, Daily Sabah reports — the sacrifice behind South Korea’s “blood ally” term (Daily Sabah).

Era	Name	Capital of	Key Istanbul event
c. 657 BCE	Byzantium	Greek colonial town (Megara)	Founded by Byzas on the peninsula
330–1453 CE	Constantinople	Roman, then Byzantine Empire	Constantine’s 330 CE dedication; walls breached 1453
1453–1923	Istanbul (in use) / Constantinople (official)	Ottoman Empire	Mehmed II’s 1453 conquest; imperial core
1923–present	Istanbul	Turkey’s economic capital (Ankara is the political capital)	1985 UNESCO listing; Bosporus tunnels; 2010 war anniversary; 2017 Ayla reunion; 2025 film-diplomacy conference

Frequently asked questions

Why is the city called Istanbul? Greek speakers referred to trips there as eis tēn polin, “into the City”; by the 13th century the phrase had become the appellation Istinpolin, which through centuries of speech permutations became Istanbul (Britannica). The Turkish Post Office officially changed the name from Constantinople in 1930 (Britannica).

Is Istanbul the capital of Turkey? No. Ankara became the capital of the Republic of Turkey in 1923, after Istanbul had served as the capital of the Byzantine and then the Ottoman empires. Istanbul remains the country’s largest city, its principal seaport, and its economic center of gravity (Britannica).

What is Istanbul’s connection to the film Ayla? The real-life story behind the film twice centered on Istanbul: Süleyman Dilbirliği’s remarks at a 2010 Istanbul Korean War anniversary event set off the search that found Kim Eun-ja, and in November 2017 she visited the 91-year-old veteran at the Haydarpaşa Numune hospital in the city (Daily Sabah).

What was the 2025 Film Diplomacy Conference? A three-day Istanbul event themed “Building Diplomats Through Lens” exploring cinema’s role in international relations — training workshops, a 24-hour film challenge on peace, and diplomat-judged awards — where Ayla was presented as a successful case study of film diplomacy (Anadolu Agency).

How does Istanbul cross between Europe and Asia? Three Bosporus suspension bridges (1973, 1988, 2016) carry road traffic, while two undersea tunnels — a passenger-rail tunnel opened in 2013 and an automobile tunnel opened in 2016 — run beneath the strait, alongside ferries departing from under the Galata Bridge (Britannica).

What this profile does not claim

• It does not assert Dilbirliği’s death date or circumstances; Turkish obituaries report a December 2017 death at 91 in Istanbul, but those pages were not re-verified from a full read, so only the November 2017 hospital visit is asserted.
• It does not give a current population figure beyond Britannica’s 2007 census count and 2019 urban-agglomeration estimate; newer figures were seen only at snippet level.
• It does not claim Istanbul is the political capital of Turkey — it is not; Ankara is.
• It does not reproduce an Anadolu Agency-original hospital report; the quotes are attributed via Daily Sabah’s published AA attribution.
• It does not date the Yeni Şafak conference report to a specific day; December 2025 is corroborated by Anadolu Agency’s dated report of the same conference.