TIL you don't need to be European to be White
(media.scored.co)
"Istanbul" was Constantinople, which was Greek (along with most of Turkey). Greeks are white. The Ottoman turks [engaged in a practice where they would forcefully kidnap and convert Greek children to Islam](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Devshirme). There's a very high probability that this guy is a descendant of one of those kidnapped Greeks.