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This article is written in American English, which has its own spelling conventions (center, color, defense, realize, traveled) and some terms may be different or absent from other varieties of English. According to the relevant style guide, this should not be changed without broad consensus.

	Istanbul is a former featured article. Please see the links under Article milestones below for its original nomination page (for older articles, check the nomination archive) and why it was removed.
	This article appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page as Today's featured article on February 23, 2019.
Article milestones Date Process Result February 11, 2007 Good article nominee Not listed August 9, 2007 Good article nominee Not listed May 26, 2012 Peer review Reviewed August 8, 2012 Featured article candidate Not promoted September 19, 2012 Featured article candidate Not promoted October 16, 2012 Featured article candidate Promoted December 26, 2020 Featured article review Demoted A news item involving this article was featured on Wikipedia's Main Page in the "In the news" column on October 21, 2018. Current status: Former featured article

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Cities: Core This article is within the scope of WikiProject Cities, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of cities, towns and various other settlements on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.CitiesWikipedia:WikiProject CitiesTemplate:WikiProject CitiesWikiProject Cities This article is on the project's core list. Greece: Byzantine Mid‑importance This article is within the scope of WikiProject Greece, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of Greece on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.GreeceWikipedia:WikiProject GreeceTemplate:WikiProject GreeceGreece Mid This article has been rated as Mid-importance on the project's importance scale. This article is supported by the Byzantine world task force. Former countries: Ottoman Empire This article is within the scope of WikiProject Former countries, a collaborative effort to improve Wikipedia's coverage of defunct states and territories (and their subdivisions). If you would like to participate, please join the project.Former countriesWikipedia:WikiProject Former countriesTemplate:WikiProject Former countriesformer country This article is supported by WikiProject Ottoman Empire (assessed as Top-importance). Turkey Top‑importance This article is within the scope of WikiProject Turkey, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of Turkey and related topics on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.TurkeyWikipedia:WikiProject TurkeyTemplate:WikiProject TurkeyTurkey Top This article has been rated as Top-importance on the project's importance scale.

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Section sizes Section size for Istanbul (45 sections) Section name Byte count Prose size (words) Header Total Header Total (Top) 14,235 14,235 458 458 Names 3,802 3,802 346 346 History 6,124 42,496 298 3,372 Byzantine era 5,713 5,713 564 564 Ottoman Empire 12,967 12,967 1,154 1,154 Turkish Republic 17,692 17,692 1,356 1,356 Geography and environment 1,350 28,870 157 1,298 Earthquakes 6,028 6,028 251 251 Climate 9,482 12,687 239 322 Climate change 3,205 3,205 83 83 Water 67 67 0 0 Flora and fauna 5,933 5,933 425 425 Pollution 2,805 2,805 143 143 Cityscape 14 14,053 0 1,289 Districts and neighborhoods 109 7,597 0 575 European side 3,280 3,280 302 302 Asian side 1,204 1,204 150 150 Expansion 3,004 3,004 123 123 Parks 2,568 2,568 269 269 Architecture 3,874 3,874 445 445 Government and politics 31 16,199 0 1,004 Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality 6,047 6,047 309 309 District municipalities 2,941 2,941 117 117 Civil administration 2,094 2,094 114 114 Politics 5,086 5,086 464 464 Demographics 9,739 22,799 356 1,185 Ethnic and religious groups 13,060 13,060 829 829 Economy 11,208 11,208 672 672 Culture 7,037 15,495 589 1,340 Leisure and entertainment 8,458 8,458 751 751 Sports 15,113 15,113 635 635 Media 5,933 5,933 481 481 Education 6,851 6,851 491 491 Public services 8,412 8,412 407 407 Transportation 736 25,730 0 1,322 Roads 4,789 4,789 270 270 Public transportation 8,758 8,758 411 411 Ferries 1,723 1,723 91 91 Railroads 4,434 4,434 234 234 Airports 5,290 5,290 316 316 See also 217 217 0 0 Notes 24 24 0 0 References 42 19,132 0 0 Bibliography 19,090 19,090 0 0 External links 2,722 2,722 0 0 Total 253,291 253,291 14,300 14,300

The article needs substantial work to meet the FA criteria: better referencing (including citing the uncited content, as well as improving the quality of refs so that promotional claims are cited to independent sources), updating many sections that are out of date. There is also massive overload of images in contrary to MOS:IMAGELOC. (t · c) buidhe 21:25, 2 November 2020 (UTC)Reply

This article is semi-protected, and I have no intension editing such a page unprompted, so I give my oppinion here

I think an article should start with its formalities and links to other articles close to the subject.

I think the introduction should be:

Istanbul (/ˌɪstænˈbʊl/ IST-an-BUUL,[7][8] US also /ˈɪstænbʊl/ IST-an-buul; Turkish: İstanbul [isˈtanbuɫ] (About this soundlisten)), formerly known as Constantinople (previous capital of the Ottoman Empire and the Roman/Byzantine Empire and was originally Byzantium an ancient Greek city in classical antiquity, is the largest city in Turkey ...

because very important traces from very important past eras are available in the site (the past cities were not destroyed and there has been a continious development of it). The other eras are described in other articles and so these articles should be linked to immediatly this way.

After the formalities go on and put up history and other aspects of the city. The introduction should be cleaned from history things and put in a history section, becaus eof the subject it must be devided into subsections. The introduction after the first formalities should describe shortly the present city, that is an important commercial centre and large city of Turkey and Europe.

The article should describe the present city and the past eras should mainly be taken care of by links in the formalities and the history section (as they are supposed to be described there). However present day remains (sites, institutions and activeties) from the past history shsould be decribed in the article becauase they are turist attractions of the present and listed in subsections dependent on the era. As a turist I should be able to track the most important present sites dependent on my perspective in the present day city.

--Zzalpha (talk) 22:13, 7 January 2022 (UTC)Reply

I would like to remove the image of 'Colomn of Constantine', 'Statue of Atatürk in Büyükada' and 'Syrian nationals in districts of Istanbul' and 'Pera Museum in Beyoglu'. I find these ones least relevant to the article. Metuboy (talk) 12:01, 16 June 2022 (UTC)Reply

It's clear that you are trying to make disinformation nationalism with adding "ancient greek.." bla bla thing. It's not allowed according to any Wikipedia policies. Look at the Gdansk article for some education. Old name of the city should be remove.

78.190.2.75 (talk) 18:51, 14 February 2022 (UTC)Reply

Currently at 12,639 words, needs to get below 10k. Bogazicili (talk) 20:46, 23 June 2025 (UTC)Reply

This edit request has been answered. Set the |answered= parameter to no to reactivate your request.

i will update the logo. Road116 (talk) 17:42, 12 July 2026 (UTC)Reply

 Not done: it's not clear what changes you want made. Please detail the specific changes in a "change X to Y" format and provide a reliable source if appropriate. Cannolis (talk) 17:51, 12 July 2026 (UTC)Reply

This edit request has been answered. Set the |answered= parameter to no to reactivate your request.

	This LLM-generated text has been collapsed and should be excluded from assessments of consensus.
The following discussion has been closed. Please do not modify it.
I would like to request a structural adjustment regarding a sentence in the lead section of the article. The current lead states: "The majority of Istanbul's Turkish citizens are of ethnic Turkish origin, whereas ethnic Kurds represent the largest ethnic minority in the city." I am not disputing the accuracy of this statement or its sourcing. My concern is solely about its placement within the article. Per WP:LEAD, the lead should provide a concise summary of the most important aspects of the topic. While demographic composition is certainly relevant, highlighting a specific ethnic minority in the opening paragraph gives disproportionate emphasis to a level of detail that is more appropriately presented in the Demographics section, where it can be accompanied by broader historical and statistical context. This approach is also consistent with the structure of comparable articles on major global cities. For example, articles such as London and Berlin summarize the cities in the lead, while detailed ethnic composition and minority breakdowns are discussed in their respective Demographics sections rather than being singled out in the introduction. For that reason, I propose relocating this sentence from the lead to the Demographics section instead of removing it. This would preserve the sourced information while improving the article's structure and maintaining a more neutral summary in accordance with WP:LEAD and WP:UNDUE. Thank you for your consideration. ~2026-43556-19 (talk) 16:28, 7 August 2026 (UTC)Reply

Not done: your request appears to have been generated by a large language model. And I don't see the sentence is undue or not neutral. Alpha Beta Delta Lambda (talk) 22:04, 7 August 2026 (UTC)Reply