Free Republic

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Saturday laid the foundation stone for the first new church in Turkey since it became a modern republic in 1923. The church in the Istanbul suburb of Yesilkoy will serve the 17,000-strong Syriac Christian community, which is also paying for the new building. "It is the Turkish republic's duty to meet the need for space to worship for the Syriac community, who are the ancient children of this geography," Erdogan said during the stone-laying ceremony. Syriac Christians are part of the eastern Christian tradition and pray in Aramaic, which Jesus is believed to have spoken....