Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, who is visiting Turkey and appealed to the Turkish leader to reverse this decision, expressed his “dissatisfaction” with the decision today in Ankara during a joint press conference with Erdogan.
“Kariye Mosque [a designação turca] Erdogan replied that, in his new identity, it will remain open to everyone.
“As I previously mentioned to the Prime Minister [grego]He announced that we have opened the Kareh Mosque for worship and visits after comprehensive restoration work in accordance with the decision we made in 2020.
He continued: “We attach great importance to protecting every monument, which constitutes an asset of UNESCO’s cultural heritage, to make it accessible to all for the benefit of our nation and all of humanity.”
In August 2020, President Erdogan ordered the reconversion of this Byzantine church, whose original construction dates back to the 5th century, and one month after the ancient Hagia Sophia Cathedral was reopened for Islamic worship.
The first believers were received last Monday, one day after celebrating Orthodox Easter.
Mitsotakis had already expressed his “strong dissatisfaction” after the Turkish leadership’s decision.
“There is no shortage of mosques in the city [de Istambul]. “It is no way to deal with cultural heritage,” he responded last week, recalling that Istanbul “was the capital of Byzantium and Orthodoxy for more than a thousand years.”
He indicated on Saturday that he would ask the Turkish President to reconsider his decision, but to no avail.
Despite this difference, the two leaders began the process of normalizing relations after decades of tensions and misunderstandings between the two neighboring countries, both of which are members of NATO.
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