Erdogan to Greece: We Don’t Need Your Permission to Turn Agia Sophia into a Mosque

Pravoslavie ^ | 6/9/20

[marshmallow]

Agia Sophia belongs to Turkey, and it can do with it as it pleases without Greece’s permission, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan emphasized yesterday in the latest ongoing spat between Turkey and Greece over the fate of the iconic cathedral-turned-mosque-turned-museum.

“Now they’re talking about Agia Sophia,” Erdogan said in response to Greece’s reaction to his own statements about reconverting Agia Sophia into a mosque. “They say, ‘You won’t turn it into a mosque.’ Are you from the Turkish administration?” he asked, reports Romfea.

Turkey does not need to ask permission from Greece to change the status of the world-famous building, the Turkish president emphasized.

“We don’t need to get permission from you. We are waiting for the decision from the State Council and will act in accordance with it,” he said.

The State Council will review the possibility of changing the status of Agia Sophia from a mosque to a museum, thus canceling the presidential decree of 1934 that turned it into a museum in the first place, on July 2.

The Turkish Constitutional Court rejected a similar request from an NGO in September 2018, though a Turkish court turned the historic Chora Monastery from a museum into a mosque last year, thus paving the way for the conversion of Agia Sophia, many believe.

[TexasGator]

Why?

[BenLurkin]

Dynamite
the
Minarets

[CondorFlight]

Russia won’t like this, either.

[Reily]

The continued death of Kemalism.

“Islam, this absurd theology of an immoral Bedouin, is a rotting corpse which poisons our lives.”
— Mustafa Kemal Ataturk

[Orosius]

It’s a World Historical Site. Where’s the UN? (I know, who am I kidding?)

[Nateman]

Turkey use to have separation of Mosque and State. As a result it sucked less than most other countries infected with majority Islam. Freedom in Islamic countries is a short term phenomenon because that evil religion is unstable under anything else than mind numbing tyranny.

The brief window of modern civilization in Turkey would have ended with someone else if Erdogan had not done so first.

[dfwgator]

Kick Turkey out of NATO, and get them out of Cyprus!

[colorado tanker]

Ataturk, who founded the modern, secular Turkish state was a revered figure who brought Turkey into the 20th Century.

It's unbelievable to me that Turks are letting Erdogan dismantle that legacy without a whimper.

[headstamp 2]

[[[[It’s unbelievable to me that Turks are letting Erdogan dismantle that legacy without a whimper.]]]]

All funded with Petrodollars through the middle east.

[Nateman]

... that legacy without a whimper.

Erdogan engineered his own fake coup attempt in order to impose his tyranny. There are a lot of Turks suffering in his jails who'd disagree . Erdogan has even been trying to arrest some ex-Turks living in the US!

[Will88]

It’s stolen property.

[Reily]

The Turkish military was the guarantor of the secular Turkish Republic. That never set well with the Euro-Ninnies. They constantly wanted the Turkish Army’s role diminished in Turkish domestic politics. In order for Turkey to move closer to Europe economically - join the EU. Euro-Ninnies wanted the Turkish military to play the same role in the Turkish nation as say the Belgian, German or Luxemburg military does their respective countries. European naivete about Turkey paved the way for Edrogan. Remember an Islamist tried to gain power once before in Turkey (1970s I think!), the military stepped and shut it down. By the time Edrogan came along the military as the secular guarantor of a secular state were too whittled down to stop him. His fake coup cleaned the last of secularists out.