A historical map depicting the 1920 “National Pact” is displayed in a public passageway in Istanbul, showing Cyprus, Western Thrace and Rhodes alongside areas of present-day Syria, Iraq and Georgia.
Cyprus, Western Thrace and Rhodes appear within the same red territory as Turkey on a map displayed in the Karaköy underground passageway in Istanbul.
Featuring a large crescent and star at its centre, the map depicts a geography extending well beyond Turkey’s present-day borders and recalls nationalist aspirations from an earlier period.
A Turkish flag dominates the centre of the installation, while the words “Ahd-i Millî” appear above the map. The term also refers to the historical Misak-ı Millî, or “National Pact”, adopted in 1920.
The map draws attention both to the names of the territories and to the way they appear. They share the same red colour and form part of a visually unified territorial space.
In the west, the map identifies Western Thrace as “Batı Trakya”, while further south it clearly marks Rhodes as “Rodos.”
Cyprus appears under its Turkish name, “Kıbrıs”, while further east and southeast the map identifies Batumi, Mosul, Kirkuk, Aleppo and Deir ez-Zor.
The image displayed in the public space in Istanbul therefore extends beyond Cyprus. It also directly touches on present-day Greek territory, with Western Thrace and Rhodes appearing on the same historical map.
What is Ahd-i Millî?
Ahd-i Millî, or Misak-ı Millî, refers to the declaration approved by the final Ottoman Parliament on 28 January 1920and made public the following month.
It established the political framework for the minimum demands of the Turkish national movement during the period following the First World War and the collapse of the Ottoman Empire.
The declaration also included a specific reference to Western Thrace, stating that its status should be determined according to the free vote of its inhabitants.
The map on display presents an even broader geographical vision. Cyprus, Western Thrace, Rhodes, Batumi, Mosul, Kirkuk, Aleppo and Deir ez-Zor all appear within the same geographical space beneath the title “Ahd-i Millî”.
More than a century later, displaying the image in a public space symbolically revives the idea of a “Greater Turkey”whose territorial extent belongs to the sphere of nationalist aspirations and differs markedly from the region’s present-day map.
