(Ankara) Ankara denounced on Saturday “the hostility of Greece towards Islam and Turkey”, the day after violent reactions from Athens to the conversion into a mosque of the former Hagia Sophia in Istanbul.
Posted on 25 July 2020 at 9 o'clock48
France Media Agency
Thousands of Muslims took part in the first prayer in Istanbul on Friday in this high place of orthodoxy converted into a mosque, in the presence of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said on Friday that “what is happening in Constantinople today is not a manifestation of power but on the contrary a sign of weakness”, accusing Turkey of “insulting the heritage of 21 e century ”.
The reactions to the conversion of Hagia Sophia into a mosque “have once again revealed the hostility of Greece towards Islam and Turkey”, declared the spokesperson for the Turkish ministry of Foreign Affairs Hami Aksoy.
He also “strongly condemned” the fact that the Turkish flag was burned in Thessaloniki, and accused the Greek government and parliament of “provoking the public with hostile statements”.
“The spoiled children of Europe, who cannot accept that we bow down again to Hagia Sophia, are delirious,” he added in a statement.
Dozens of people “in mourning”, waving Greek flags and images of the Virgin, gathered Friday evening in Athens and Thessaloniki, Greece's second city, to pray and protest against the conversion into a mosque of Saint -Sophie, built by the Byzantines in the 6 e century and listed as a World Heritage Site.
PHOTO SAKIS MITROLIDIS, FRANCE-PRESS AGENCY
Protesters gathered outside the Turkish consulate in Thessaloniki on Friday evening.
Converted into a mosque after the capture of Constantinople, Hagia Sophia was transformed into a museum in 1934 by the first president of the Turkish Republic, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, anxious to “offer it to humanity”.
Ataturk's birthplace in Thessaloniki was closed on Friday by the Turkish consulate, officially for maintenance until Monday.
Neighboring countries, both members of NATO, Greece and Turkey have historically had strained relations.
