ISTANBUL, TURKEY – MAY 28: Fireworks and light show during the celebration of the 564th anniversary of Istanbul’s conquest by the Ottomans on the shore of Halic Congress Center in Istanbul, Turkey on May 28, 2017. On May 29, 1453, Sultan Mehmed II conquered Istanbul, then called Constantinople, from where the Byzantines had ruled the Eastern Roman Empire for more than 1,000 years. The conquest transformed the city, once the heart of the Byzantine realm, into the capital of the new Ottoman Empire. ( Erhan Elaldı – Anadolu Agency )