As Church Bells Toll in Mourning, Greece & Turkey Spar Over Conversion of Hagia Sophia Into Mosque
Worshippers attend afternoon prayers and consult with Hagia Sophia Grand Mosque, for the primary time after it was once as soon as once more declared a mosque after 86 years, in Istanbul, Turkey. (Symbol: Reuters)
Hagia Sophia was once in the past a museum and maximum Greeks view it as central to their Orthodox Christian faith.
- Reuters
- Closing Up to date: July 26, 2020, 7:30 AM IST
Turkey and Greece exchanged harsh phrases on Saturday over the conversion of Istanbul’s Hagia Sophia right into a mosque, an afternoon after Islamic prayers had been held on the historical web site for the primary time in 9 many years.
President Tayyip Erdogan, who attended Friday’s rite that sealed his ambition to revive Muslim worship at Hagia Sophia, didn’t identify Greece however mentioned critics of the transfer had been merely in opposition to Muslims and Turkey.
Greek grievance of the transfer has been particularly scathing, underlining stressful ties between Greece and Turkey. Hagia Sophia was once in the past a museum and maximum Greeks view it as central to their Orthodox Christian faith: church bells tolled in mourning throughout Greece on Friday.
“We see that the objectives of the ones international locations who’ve made such a lot noise in contemporary days don’t seem to be Hagia Sophia or the japanese Mediterranean,” Erdogan mentioned in a televised speech.
“(Their objectives) are the presence itself of the Turkish country and Muslims on this area,” he mentioned.
In a observation previous on Saturday, the Turkish Overseas Ministry spokesman mentioned “Greece confirmed as soon as once more its enmity against Islam and Turkey with the excuse of reacting to Hagia Sophia Mosque being opened to prayers”.
He strongly condemned opposed statements by means of the Greek executive and parliament contributors and Turkish flag-burning within the Greek town of Thessaloniki.
The Greek Overseas Ministry replied with its personal observation, pronouncing “the global group of the 21st century is shocked to watch the non secular and nationalist enthusiast ramblings of nowadays’s Turkey.”
On Friday, Greek Top Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis known as Turkey a “troublemaker”, and the conversion of the web site an “affront to civilisation of the 21st century”.
Greece and Turkey disagree on a spread of problems from airspace to maritime zones within the japanese Mediterranean and ethnically cut up Cyprus.
