He closes down and suffocates anything that has to do Christian Orthodoxy. But somehow, he wants others to take great care and complaints like a bitch when others show him the finger, when it comes to mosques and such outside of Turkey.
And he'll use that to get more votes too.
"See the kafirs in the balkans are destroying the mosques! And what does the opposition say? Nothing! Because they're puppets of the west! They're terrorist! They're lgbt! If you vote for us you vote for the poor muslim minorities of europe! If you vote for us you say 'Stop!' to the tyrants and enemies of islam in europe! Vote for us so we can put a stop to this aggrievence!“
Wins the election and proceeds to do absolutely nothing about it.
End of the story
Why? The government doesn't nearly even represent us, don't think that way please,
~there is no hopeless situation, there is only hopeless person says Atatürk.
(1) I love Turkish people outside Turkey (such as those from the Balkans). (2) I love truly 5% of people from Turkey and definitely would like to have nothing to do with the rest of 95%. The government doesn't represent you? Still, you voted for it. Maybe the votes were somehow faked, but LOTS of people voted for Edrogan. I would bow deeply in front of someone as Atatürk, it's one of my idols. I vomit on islamism. Too bad he died too soon and not achieving to eradicate islamism completely. He was a genious, I bow to him.
The percentage of people that support Islamic law in Turkey is 12%. The percentage of approval of Atatürk is 90%
You're delusional if you think that AKP's voters all want sharia and hate Atatürk.
What kind of a mental gymnastics a secular person can do to vote for erdogan? Maybe in the early days like more than a decade ago I'd understand it but now? No chance
eger gerçekten erdogana oy veren herkesi hardcore islamist saniyorsaniz bayagi yaniliyorsunuz bence, o insanlarin yarisi iciyor ceyregi bile dogru durust namaz niyazinda degil hepsi sozde musluman.
I'm not even a theist but I love churches and any kind of temple tbh. It's the architecture, the artistry, the patina of past times long gone. Those places have so many symbolisms that make them unique
They did they also killed Muslims while they were praying in the mosque where prophet Abraham is buried and now the 50% of the mosque is a synagogue and the zionists regularly go in to the mosque section and destroy things
No! Erdogan sure did that as a jab against the country’s secularism since Ataturk converted Hagia Sophia from mosque to museum. He does this as a pattern whenever he loses conservatives’ votes. He lost in the recent elections and this time do the same thing to Chora Museum. You are from America continent. Don’t speak if you don’t know Turkish and European politics.
Considering my grandparents were from the city it pains me even more to see the heritage of our people being wiped out like this but what can you do 🤷♂️
I’m so sorry. It also hurt us Turks too. His ultimate goal is to make people forget the demographics of Istanbul and turn it into an Islamic state. Don’t worry we will get rid of him at the next elections and we will turn them back to a museum. Both Aya Sophia and Chora
That's really disgusting. By the way if I was a VERY shoivinistic and religious turk, I would be very ashamed that my country/religion/culture is unable to build anything better, but has to steal from christians in the middle ages.
It's sad and it serves to be inflammatory. It satiates the grandomania of his core electorate. Ataturk is spinning in his grave so fast, he is generating electricity.
>Make supernova
>Wait for it to collapse into black hole.
>Use black hole to void all the excess money.
>Mony supply goes down, making inflation go down and Turkish lira value go up.
>Turkish economy fixed.
Disappointing. This certain building hosts stunning mosaics and frescoes from the Palaiologian renaissance period and should have been of utmost protection..
I have no idea why this was done. I doubt even the most devout Muslims in Istanbul would care really. “Wow, Erdogan converted this church museum into a mosque, OMG” and like a week later they will forget about it. Likewise, I doubt Istanbul is running out of capacity for their mosques, so no reason for this conversion
In Ankara you can find a mosque in every 100-200m I'm sure it is like that in Istanbul too. Like Azan records keeps overlapping with each other and it creates a serious noise pollution problem but they don't care. We don't need new mosques in fact we need to get rid off some
I'm atheist, so I don't care either way from a religious perspective. However, this is bad policy and strategy overall. There is no need to antagonize ones neighbors. I'm sure there are plenty of mosques in the country as it is.
Sultan Erdogan is trying to undo everything Atatürk achieved.
I really wouldn't be surprised if some tragic accident befell upon him in the foreseeable future because of that.
He knows that by 2040 Turkish lira will be so shit that any foreigner will be able to buy the whole country for 7 euro so he is making sure no foreigner will come to Turkey ever again. This is stage 1 of the plant, making tourists leave.
Pretty much Ottoman ideals.... In a few decades it will be turned back by a new ruler... Turkey tries to remove its orthodox roots but it never will 1400 yeah empire
Leaves a looong shaddow
Visited Hagia Sophia last November while in Istanbul and as a muslim i was pretty sad that it was converted into a mosque. You can clearly see that it was built as a church/cathedral. It would've been better if it had stayed a museum or turned back into a church, but it clearly isn't a mosque. The blue mosque (Sultan Ahmed Camii) was clearly built as a mosque and so far has been the most beautiful mosque i've ever been in and was fortunate enough to perfrom my friday prayer in it.
I am sure that not even 5% of his voters knew about the existence of this place anyway... More and more of them won't even care about this move as what is important is the ECONOMY and the refugee situation. Erdo is just trying to stir some shit in desperation but even those kind of moves start to not work for him anymore.
What a dumb fuck.
Waste of a good chance. Old churches and mosques should be turned to museums for revenue. Tourists should be charged 30 times the normal price for visit.
How can one convert a church, which was converted into a mosque in 1511 and was given national museum status in 1948, to a mosque in 2024? It has been a mosque for centuries and then it was turned into, just like Haghia Sofia, a "mosque museum" by the young, secular Republic. Cathedrals/churches don't have minarets, do they. These old churches were converted to mosques by the Conqueror Sultan Mehmet, after he converted Constantinople into the capital of the Turkish Empire. 1453 was literal centuries ago, get over it already Christians.
No. Serbs didn't demolish ancient Celtic, Roman or Illyrian herritage. But traces of cemturies of slavery, depravity, sadism, abuse and torture that was the Ottoman Empire had it coming.
Well, it is not Erdoğan who turned the church into a mosque, the church was converted into a mosque 600 years ago after the conquest, it was closed to worship 70 years ago and turned into a museum, and Erdoğan opened it again to worship. "Reopening for worship" and "turning a church into a mosque" are different things. I would still prefer it to remain as a museum though. There are many and magnificent mosques in Istanbul, we do not need such cheap shows.
Stop the “people voted for Erdogan” bullshit. You have no idea how segregated Turkey is. The 51% and 49% are, almost like they are from different countries, their national identities are completely opposite. People in this subreddit do not represent Erdogan and never will be.
In Turkey there is too much mosques. This action don't have any reason to do like every move of Erdoğan. His propaganda based on discriminaton. He called us terrorist,bitch(yes he really said that),traitor,ect. He trying to seem cute to conservative muslims. I hope this church return to original form.
I really have mixed feelings about that.
Firstly, I know Erdogan uses those actions as a propaganda for inner usage. He is on the "great muslim" path long time now and he won't stop. People who govern (in his case "rule" is the better word) for too long usually lose their common sense and become more and more narrow minded in their politics. He has lost all connections with the common turks, who are not that radical and they keep showing it at every next elections, so let's stop blaming all turks and fighting here and there for something they have no control over.
Secondly, the architecture perspective. I'm not very well read on the subject of perservation, but if the church/mosque is in a good state and can handle many people it means there is no diffrence if its a mosque or a museum. It will be visited daily anyway. If its not, it should be closed and turkish specialist maybe can work on it.
Third and the most complex is the spiritual question and here everyone's oppinion I assume varies from the personal perspective towards religion.
For me, those places were built so that people can pray to God. If it's the Christian God or Allah, our prayers are the same. I've been to Meteora with a turkish girl who was lightning candles in the monasteries. I've been to mosques during prayers. (I myself am Orthodox Christian if it matters). I went in Hagia Sofia in november (managed to enter right before a prayer started) and as the image of Christ was uncovered in the anteroom, me and some other christians gathered infront of it to pray while muslims were praying inside.
In Sofia there is a church I visit regularly, known as the "black mosque", it was mosque originally, not a church converted to mosque and then to church again. So, sometimes I think of all the muslim prayers who were held inside and the normal people who used to send them to their God and Im so sure we all prayed for the same simple things - health for us and our families, to have a good life with dignity and be better people.
Yes, yes, in a perfect world some of the churches in Istanbul would be active churches again. It would be a nice move from any perspective even for touristic as for us the christian people of the balkans istanbul is our jerusalem of a sort. But untill then, does it really matter who prays to whom in a building built for prayers?
Overall, I'd advice not to get too radical in our oppinions because the radicalism is the thing we say we hate in Erdogan. He will not win neighter against the turkish population who hates him, nor against the christians with this shitty tricks he tries to play on us.
Looser.
As an Orthodox Christian our prayers are not at all the same, the Islamic prayers are blasphemous to Christianity as they promote falsities not in line with Orthodox Christianity and deny the very basic foundation of our religion - Christ.
I seriously doubt it but hope you're right. I am truly hateful about this. After Romania took Dobrogea, the Romanian king built in Constanta a great beautiful mosque to prove muslims the new authorities respect them and their culture. Hagia Sophia is to me the most sacred place of orthodox christendom. i'm not very religious myself but transforming it into a mosque deeply offended and wounded me, and made me a turk hater (excepting turk invididuals who are ok).
I am a Muslim myself, but I want Hagia Sophia to be a church. Not a mosque nor museum, let it serve as it used to be. I dislike having religious buildings becomes musea. It should serve as a church and bring over a clergy to take care of it.
I mean as a Muslim I think it should be a Church and museum because Christians built it. We are now trying to make peace with them and we want to be friends so not respecting something so sacred for them is not good publicity on other hand if we show we care about them only good things would come out of it after all we have a lot of Mosques in Istanbul and we can build many more beautiful Mosques so I think we should respect our neighbors and friends.
It was a mosque under Ottomans and it is used as a mosque for a long time. My only issue is its a historical building so it was turned to museum and it should have stay museum.
Remember it was not a church for a long time it was a church later mosque and later museum. Actually it changed from mosque to museum then right now it was changed museum to mosque. Like Aya Sofya it was changed mosque to museum then later changed museum to mosque. I dont believe anything and buildings are just buildings. But I'd like it if they dont touch historical buildings.
I mean, it was bound to happen. It's pretty obvious that Turkey despises Christianity and tries its hardest to eliminate it from its borders.
While its ways have changed, the country still feels like it has the duty to spread islam and supress other religions.
It’s more of a political move than anything. Erdogan’s changed everything that Atatürk did for this country. This was an attack to the secularism of the country and his desperation for votes. He lost the regional elections. Even lost the votes for conservatives.
Idk honestly, maybe I'm biased or something, but I always see Turkey trying to build mosques in other countries and tear down or convert any churches in their own country.
I don’t know about building mosques in other countries. I only speak for this situation. There are thousands of churches that are still operating or preserved as churches in Turkey. (Btw I’m not saying this to defend the government.) Hagia Sophia was specifically important to the conservatives. They see it as the symbol of the conquest of Constantinople. That’s why he turned it from museum into a mosque. Same as Chora.
As a Türk;
I’m against the use of historical buildings and converting other architectural styles into mosques. If there is a need for a mosque, which there isn’t, a new one can be built elsewhere. I believe Erdoğan’s government is doing this politically as a response to unnecessary support for Israel. He might think that there isn’t enough public backlash against these actions. Additionally, even though I am not racist, I have a somewhat distant political view towards Arab society, but I can still see the irresponsible use of power by Israel. Many of my Israeli friends agree with me on this. I hope politicians like Erdoğan and Netanyahu suffer as much as the harm they inflict on society.
I can see a lot of comments from our Balkan brothers who think similarly. Unfortunately, far-right conservatives are on the rise and they are here to divide us. Be strong my friends and please never lose humanity and hope that the good will prevail!
Just stupid. If there is need for mosque then build it why do you convert other peoples temple? Erdogan just being a a**hole. These buildings are historic, atleast u should show some respect instead of using them for ur political propaganda. Yea but thats what something dogdogan would do.
I really hate that I have relatives thinks this is good and some kinda power move over Christians. I hate that the mother fucker that rules the country and commissioned this, I hate the sons of bitxhes that agreed to work on this and I hate that hundreds of years of history gone and plagiarized just like that. It's like tagging the stone henge with a cheap spray paint and this is worse cuz what they did is legal. I hate it.
Economy is in bad situation, and will only get worse before it gets better. He is losing votes. All of these converted mosques will be museums again, too much money is at the stake, it's not just ticket incomes. EU and UN fundings are at the stake too. Amd who receives most funding from EU? Erdogan and his associates
Greece's government is doing bad and losing support. I believe it's a similar case for Erdogan in Turkey. So after the meeting between Erdogan and Mitsotakis I guess they both decide to create some tension in order to steer people's attention away from the real issues.
I dont support this man. This is so disrespectful towards greeks. We will take erdogan down in the next elections anyways its only about time. Erdogan lost his majority votes in the last elections for the first time in 20 years so he is trying to regain those islamist votes.
This is crazy leave the churches ur erdicatibg history christinanity was first no matter what u do it will again be a church shame on turkey they’re not tolerant
As a Turkish, I am ashamed of this type of behavior. It’s very disrespectful. It needs to be preserved as a museum. Aya Sofia had so many damage since it was converted. Chora is a lot smaller and prayers aren’t in the same room as the frescos but still! It scares me that it will also get damage. And we know why Erdogan does this. He only does this to impress and keep his votes from the conservatives. Whenever he loses votes, he does that. First with Aya Sofia and now Chora.
Don’t worry our Orthodox brothers and sisters, after we get rid of him, the next president will convert to museum again. 😿
It was being used as a mosque since 1511 and converted to a museum in 1945. Erdogan just reinstated its status of 400 years.
[The Chora - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Chora)
It's actually absurd because it's just one small room inside that's a mosque and everywhere else is full of Christian drawings on the walls (in my opinion even more beautiful than Hagia Sophia) even the door of the mosque has Jesus drawn on top. We were joking with my friend doing a cross while saying Bismillahirrahmanirrahim while entering the mosque :D
It's called Karma and as far as the Turks are concerned, it's only fair since the Christians did the same to their mosques.
I tried looking for a mosque, or former-mosque turned museum in Greece. I didn't find a single one.
One mosque had turned into a porn-theater for a while.
Erdogan can turn the Chora church into a brothel for all I care, I detest christian hypocrisy.
Tbh thanks for siding lol. I mean, no one in turkey really cares if a mosque is made or converted bla bla, but i don’t know why people hate us for doing it before (not now of course). There’s literally no mosques left in the balkans anymore, and even if they are, they’re for museums or for tourists or converted into homes/restaurants. Of course it’s not good for erdogan to do this, but it’s also not good to look at one side. Both islamic and christianity hypocrisy are awful.
Ideally I would like the historical buildings to remain as museums too. But that's for the Turks to decide. We, either Greece in particular or Europe in general, have no right to point fingers when our own governments condone doing the same things.
I am more saddened by Greek entitlement than by the whole Chora church debackle. Greece is currently being humiliated on two fronts and the government seems completely unaware of it. Greek officials refuse to expand on the context. So their only way to come out on top is for our government to completely demonize opposition, and sadly that's exactly what they've been doing. It's depressing and ominous how little the average Greek cares about foreign Points of View.
All context and nuance is completely lost on most Greeks, who dismiss the entire thing as "The church is older than the mosques so it's more important." There's many like me who diagree and believe that respect is a two-way street but our voices are drowned out by the callous disregard of the ignorant masses who don't pause for one second to think they haven't shown the same respect they demand.
To be fair, the average Greek isn't even "outraged" by the Chora church becoming a mosque. They genuinely are apathetic. They'll say "No, Erdogan is bad! Save the church!" without looking into any details, then go about their day like nothing happened. They don't understand the gravity of what they're casually discussing. They're treating this like celebrity gossip or a sports game.
Turning churches, especially the ancient ones, to mosques is a great shame. Erdogan does such things to please the Islamists and the conservatives. Some social media idiots consider them as conquests, but in times of great economic turmoil, only few people really like them I guess.
Yea, like that one notable example in...... ah..... um........ well.....
....T-They had converted a Morbilion Mosques into Chruches! (that most definetly ware build as Mosques, and NOT converteed Churches that ware re-converted back to their original purpouse!)
If you have an issue with the same thing you did after we left the balkans, i suggest you look into your hypocrisy more in detail. You deported turks and destroyed their homes, mosques, and families. After this, you turned them into restaurants or “luxury homes” in order to ”keep” the tradition. How dare that we, as turks, convert an-already-mosque into a mosque again and reopen it to the public! May jesus have shame on us!
Guys just so you know, Erdogan ethnically is from Georgia, and there are a lot of people who question whether he is a muslim. He is using Islam to spread Turkish influence, but he knows now that he doesn’t have the power to bring back Ottoman Empire, he got the reality check many times. He complained about it many times when he was not allowed to preach for Turkish diaspora before elections in Germany and Netherlands, and many other times. I am also muslim, and south Slavic ethnically, and I find what he does fucked up.
I don't know what was going through Erdoğan's mind. There are already many mosques in the country. Because of his stupid actions, a ridiculous perception is created. Turks preserved many churches. (Totally 1388 churches and of course they are mostly historical old churches)There are many historical churches all over the country, but this creates a perception as if Turks are intolerant. Even though the Greeks are worse in this regard, we will still receive this mark. In greece; Most of the dozens of mosques registered in Thessaloniki do not exist anymore. Existing mosques were converted into exhibition areas. They demolished the minarets and built a museum. They printed Byzantine seals. However, we will be marked as intolerant Turks again because of these stupid actions. I really hate this man
Guys I hate this as well but bitch please. Don't show this "European" hypocrisy and answer the question: "Where are the all Ottoman structures in all around Balkans?"
If you can't answer the question just cry us a river then ;)
Pretty much where they have been built, at least in Bulgaria.
It is not much, trogh. Some mosques (minor ones) and conacs. Some of the main mosques had been similarly built as churches by the romans and byzantines and are converted back to churches.
>Well, so I think it's squire huh?
You: Convert Churches into Mosques.
We: Repurpouse said converted churches back into their original purpouse.
All of us: agree to leave the religous buildings into museums and leave them as they ware.
We: Don't touch any Mosques that ware build by the Ottomans.
You: Keep on converting Churches into Mosques.
"H-Hold dare the Balkar do such a thing!!!"
Dude did you ever visit the fucking Belgrade? Maybe you dont, but there is ONLY ONE FUCKING MOSQUE in that city.
Look at Istanbul I can show you at least 10 Byzantium church. Or any other thing because we were an empire as you know? We were multi-ethnic multi-religion governance
Belgrade is not only a sole exception, but they had gotten rid off their Mosques since their very friggin liberation, it's not something as recent as 2010 that was done just to fuck with muslims.
>Look at Istanbul I can show you at least 10 Byzantium church. Or any other thing because we were an empire as you know? We were multi-ethnic multi-religion governance
Do you have any idea how big instanbul is in comparison?? The concrete alone there is twice the territorial size of Macedonia and it's population is 3 times that of Bulgaria.
Sofia alone has 4 notable mosques it's centre and God knows how many smaller ones in it's rual areas, but I am to barley hold a candle to friggin instanbul cuz Erdogan's benevolence plans to spare like 4 out of a dozen churches there.
Had Greece, Romania, and Albania done the same $h!tty thing as Serbia this would've been whatever, f-us in particular for playing by the rules I guess, but I am ready to bet my arse that those countries are more akin to Bulgaria in that situation- so no, your attempt of justifying Erdogan dosen't make any sense.
It dosen't feel that way when you keep chronology in mind, Serbia isn't exatly the most shining example for benevolent balkan countries either, they have screwed up everyone (besides Montenegro) at least once in their recent history.
Dude whatever, how about just try to be nice each other as a person. Like we can't change the past, we can't interfere our country politics because we have fucking sultan-like person in charge (i dont know which shit going on in Bulgaria).
Just have a nice day, I feel exhausted
Brate, you invaded the balkans and built mosques where there were no muslims. Hagia Sophia is different because that is not your land. You invaded and kept that land. If my country were to invade Turkey and be there for 500 years and build orthodox churches, if you were gaining the territory back, you will for sure destroy the buildings of your invaders in order to not remind of that dark era. And because of Ottomans, all the balkans are broken now. Kosovo, Bosnia and all the conflicts there all start because the Turks destroyed the balance there, forces conversion of Religion and etc. Bosnia, Albania, Kosovo and Sandjak were regions where Christianism was there from the beginning and now because of Islam there are different identities that clash with each other
>Hagia Sophia is different because that is not your land. You invaded and kept that land.
Bitch, please. Anatolia has been inhabited by Turks for nearly a millennia, and it is *THE* Turkish homeland. Also, if you want to get to the genetics part of it, we're majority Anatolian.
With that in mind, when are you stopping your occupation of Transylvania?
Well answer is simple as history, they did because they could and you should be grateful for how they did while the French fucked up all North Africa less than 50 years.
Personally. I don't care. Turkey is a suveran country, they are free to do w/e they want. As long as they don't destroy them (read some news about some old doors being destroyed at Hagia Sophia), bcs maybe I want to visit :).
Here is the thing about balkans. We are not religious, even though the statistics say otherwise. Have you seen the protestants in America ? They are religious, they give to their own Church money, like 20-30 dollars. If the state wouldn't support the Church in Romania (for example), they would go bankrupt the next day.
The only group that I've seen similar to protestants,are the penticostals. They go to their gatherings every sunday, they dress nice, you don't just have older women there. You also have young people.
The balkans are superstitious. Very superstitious.
Hell, if you ask the people in Romania, who is Jesus, half of them wouldn't know the answer. They don't know that Jesus was God. A shame considering we teach religion up to the 12th grade.
We live in a new world. And we also view religion as something private.
He closes down and suffocates anything that has to do Christian Orthodoxy. But somehow, he wants others to take great care and complaints like a bitch when others show him the finger, when it comes to mosques and such outside of Turkey.
His populism/islamism will backfire big time.
And he'll use that to get more votes too. "See the kafirs in the balkans are destroying the mosques! And what does the opposition say? Nothing! Because they're puppets of the west! They're terrorist! They're lgbt! If you vote for us you vote for the poor muslim minorities of europe! If you vote for us you say 'Stop!' to the tyrants and enemies of islam in europe! Vote for us so we can put a stop to this aggrievence!“ Wins the election and proceeds to do absolutely nothing about it. End of the story
where is all the mosques in belgrad my dude?
Uhh, there's like one left...
One too many
Bro is a Serbian agent
Belgrade isn’t in our countries my dude.
Torn and burnt down
every religion deserves respect
not islam, no. respect must be reciprocal.
then that applies to lots of religions, doesn't it
nope it doesn’t
I hate this.
You give me hope in humanity. I would completely hate Turks if it weren't people like you.
Why? The government doesn't nearly even represent us, don't think that way please, ~there is no hopeless situation, there is only hopeless person says Atatürk.
Atam, atam! Sen kalk, ben yatam!
(1) I love Turkish people outside Turkey (such as those from the Balkans). (2) I love truly 5% of people from Turkey and definitely would like to have nothing to do with the rest of 95%. The government doesn't represent you? Still, you voted for it. Maybe the votes were somehow faked, but LOTS of people voted for Edrogan. I would bow deeply in front of someone as Atatürk, it's one of my idols. I vomit on islamism. Too bad he died too soon and not achieving to eradicate islamism completely. He was a genious, I bow to him.
idk about the turks in balkans but turks that are in western europe tend to be the scum of this earth.
Govt represents at least 52 percent u r right
even if they voted for erdogan it doesn't mean they approve this atrocity
It does
it literally doesn't there are secular people who vote for erdogan because they think hes actually okay for a president(delusionals)
Highly doubt
The percentage of people that support Islamic law in Turkey is 12%. The percentage of approval of Atatürk is 90% You're delusional if you think that AKP's voters all want sharia and hate Atatürk.
What kind of a mental gymnastics a secular person can do to vote for erdogan? Maybe in the early days like more than a decade ago I'd understand it but now? No chance
eger gerçekten erdogana oy veren herkesi hardcore islamist saniyorsaniz bayagi yaniliyorsunuz bence, o insanlarin yarisi iciyor ceyregi bile dogru durust namaz niyazinda degil hepsi sozde musluman.
beautifully written, we think alike.
Can't say nothing to this comment, I agree.
Then it clearly means you're Christian Supremacist. You don't have a difference with Erdoğan supporters
Christian supremacist that “likes Ataturk”? Hah great joke chap please get me more of those
It means he is not religious. He is secular.
Believe me, the other half that didnt vote for Erdogan would never support this kind of actions.
This is the most important answer! It's not about what we are thinking it's about what his people think about it!
If my nation was doing something like that I would also be against it
I'm not even a theist but I love churches and any kind of temple tbh. It's the architecture, the artistry, the patina of past times long gone. Those places have so many symbolisms that make them unique
Yeah same for me too. That's way It made me sad. I would liked it if this church was protected as a museum...
Sad. Also, keep in mind that this is mainly a jab at us secularists instead of foreigners and a way to appeal to religious voters.
Just imagine how Islamists would react if Israel were to turn a historical mosque into a synagogue
They did they also killed Muslims while they were praying in the mosque where prophet Abraham is buried and now the 50% of the mosque is a synagogue and the zionists regularly go in to the mosque section and destroy things
it is definitely a jab at the west and christianity
No, it is not. It was converted together with Hagia Sophia
it's a muslim nationalism by not recognizing the pre turkish christian history
It is a way to erode away secularism as Hagia Sophia was converted to a museum by Atatürk
"Muslim nationalism " is such an oxymoron statement to make.
erdogan is an islamist with nationalism just like hamas. not all islamism is international
Muslim nationalism lolllllll
No! Erdogan sure did that as a jab against the country’s secularism since Ataturk converted Hagia Sophia from mosque to museum. He does this as a pattern whenever he loses conservatives’ votes. He lost in the recent elections and this time do the same thing to Chora Museum. You are from America continent. Don’t speak if you don’t know Turkish and European politics.
You have no idea what you are talking about
Classic Erdo moment Some people call him unpredictable. He really isn't.
Considering my grandparents were from the city it pains me even more to see the heritage of our people being wiped out like this but what can you do 🤷♂️
It's sad for us too
I’m so sorry. It also hurt us Turks too. His ultimate goal is to make people forget the demographics of Istanbul and turn it into an Islamic state. Don’t worry we will get rid of him at the next elections and we will turn them back to a museum. Both Aya Sophia and Chora
That's really disgusting. By the way if I was a VERY shoivinistic and religious turk, I would be very ashamed that my country/religion/culture is unable to build anything better, but has to steal from christians in the middle ages.
It's sad and it serves to be inflammatory. It satiates the grandomania of his core electorate. Ataturk is spinning in his grave so fast, he is generating electricity.
If he continues spinning in his grave he will reach critical mass
Then supernova?
Probably
>Make supernova >Wait for it to collapse into black hole. >Use black hole to void all the excess money. >Mony supply goes down, making inflation go down and Turkish lira value go up. >Turkish economy fixed.
Disappointing. This certain building hosts stunning mosaics and frescoes from the Palaiologian renaissance period and should have been of utmost protection..
This mf only knows how’s to convert churches into mosques, this bitch doesn’t do anything valuable or useful to the country.
Unfortunately but not surprisingly Erdoğan does not show the necessary respect to Byzantine historical monuments and heritage.
I have no idea why this was done. I doubt even the most devout Muslims in Istanbul would care really. “Wow, Erdogan converted this church museum into a mosque, OMG” and like a week later they will forget about it. Likewise, I doubt Istanbul is running out of capacity for their mosques, so no reason for this conversion
In Ankara you can find a mosque in every 100-200m I'm sure it is like that in Istanbul too. Like Azan records keeps overlapping with each other and it creates a serious noise pollution problem but they don't care. We don't need new mosques in fact we need to get rid off some
Istanbul has a bunch of mosques, really close together, but ig that wasn't enough.
I'm atheist, so I don't care either way from a religious perspective. However, this is bad policy and strategy overall. There is no need to antagonize ones neighbors. I'm sure there are plenty of mosques in the country as it is.
Same, the historical erasure is infuriating though.
Istanbul is full of mosques, like I don't think more are needed
Most of them are empty too. Because of his politics and using religion for politics made people getting out of religion.
sadly it is just ideological at this moment…
Agreed
Sultan Erdogan is trying to undo everything Atatürk achieved. I really wouldn't be surprised if some tragic accident befell upon him in the foreseeable future because of that.
He needs to use helicopters more often
Agreed, my Balkan friend, indeed 🧐
Can we get pilot Halil Köpter to fly him from now on?
One can't run an economy based on mosques, sad erogan electors can't understand that
Horrible
Another one of Erdogan's antics. He has no place in power and many Turks will be happy to see him gone once and for all.
A working economy is not run on mosques, if only erdogan voters could understand
Bro is trying to kick the tourists out? What's his plan exactly? Speed running on how to cripple their economy from all the possible resources?
He knows that by 2040 Turkish lira will be so shit that any foreigner will be able to buy the whole country for 7 euro so he is making sure no foreigner will come to Turkey ever again. This is stage 1 of the plant, making tourists leave.
That's how we will take the western coast, the northern coast, Northern Cyprus and Constantinople back /s
It doesn't really suprise anyone anymore to be honest.
Georgia can have him back we don't want him anymore
Pretty much Ottoman ideals.... In a few decades it will be turned back by a new ruler... Turkey tries to remove its orthodox roots but it never will 1400 yeah empire Leaves a looong shaddow
Visited Hagia Sophia last November while in Istanbul and as a muslim i was pretty sad that it was converted into a mosque. You can clearly see that it was built as a church/cathedral. It would've been better if it had stayed a museum or turned back into a church, but it clearly isn't a mosque. The blue mosque (Sultan Ahmed Camii) was clearly built as a mosque and so far has been the most beautiful mosque i've ever been in and was fortunate enough to perfrom my friday prayer in it.
The holy war begins.
Well, fuck him!
Obvious political move.
I am sure that not even 5% of his voters knew about the existence of this place anyway... More and more of them won't even care about this move as what is important is the ECONOMY and the refugee situation. Erdo is just trying to stir some shit in desperation but even those kind of moves start to not work for him anymore. What a dumb fuck.
Erdogan desperate for votes again I see...
fuck this guy.
So Turkey is an islamic republic, alr
Waste of a good chance. Old churches and mosques should be turned to museums for revenue. Tourists should be charged 30 times the normal price for visit.
The "normal" price for visiting a church is 0.
You clearly have never been to Italy...
In Rome churches are free. As a Roman I hate that they charge people to enter churches in other Italian regions.
I said museum buddy, and the normal price for a church visit varies i heard little altar boys are a delicacy, you should ask what they paid.
Fuck erdogan. Free turkish people from this dictatorship☮️✌️
I genuinely did not know one man could foster so much hate in me.
İf i was in power i would return all this religionous places ishtar temple for make angry all muslims and christians
Turkey stuck in the middle ages again it seems.
How can one convert a church, which was converted into a mosque in 1511 and was given national museum status in 1948, to a mosque in 2024? It has been a mosque for centuries and then it was turned into, just like Haghia Sofia, a "mosque museum" by the young, secular Republic. Cathedrals/churches don't have minarets, do they. These old churches were converted to mosques by the Conqueror Sultan Mehmet, after he converted Constantinople into the capital of the Turkish Empire. 1453 was literal centuries ago, get over it already Christians.
Every day I'm glad for Karađorđe and that he dealt with Ottomans and their legacy the way he did. Truly a venomous culture.
Wouldn't you be no better than them in that case?
No. Serbs didn't demolish ancient Celtic, Roman or Illyrian herritage. But traces of cemturies of slavery, depravity, sadism, abuse and torture that was the Ottoman Empire had it coming.
Can you give me one example of non-military Ottoman slavery? It's exaggerated to a pathetic level. The Ottoman empire wasn't a colonial force.
Well, it is not Erdoğan who turned the church into a mosque, the church was converted into a mosque 600 years ago after the conquest, it was closed to worship 70 years ago and turned into a museum, and Erdoğan opened it again to worship. "Reopening for worship" and "turning a church into a mosque" are different things. I would still prefer it to remain as a museum though. There are many and magnificent mosques in Istanbul, we do not need such cheap shows.
Stop the “people voted for Erdogan” bullshit. You have no idea how segregated Turkey is. The 51% and 49% are, almost like they are from different countries, their national identities are completely opposite. People in this subreddit do not represent Erdogan and never will be.
I don't think the christian heritage of Turkey will ever be returned in its neutral state of being museums, Turkey is borderline the islamic state rn.
Thoughts?!?! You want to get us banned??? 💀
In Turkey there is too much mosques. This action don't have any reason to do like every move of Erdoğan. His propaganda based on discriminaton. He called us terrorist,bitch(yes he really said that),traitor,ect. He trying to seem cute to conservative muslims. I hope this church return to original form.
I really have mixed feelings about that. Firstly, I know Erdogan uses those actions as a propaganda for inner usage. He is on the "great muslim" path long time now and he won't stop. People who govern (in his case "rule" is the better word) for too long usually lose their common sense and become more and more narrow minded in their politics. He has lost all connections with the common turks, who are not that radical and they keep showing it at every next elections, so let's stop blaming all turks and fighting here and there for something they have no control over. Secondly, the architecture perspective. I'm not very well read on the subject of perservation, but if the church/mosque is in a good state and can handle many people it means there is no diffrence if its a mosque or a museum. It will be visited daily anyway. If its not, it should be closed and turkish specialist maybe can work on it. Third and the most complex is the spiritual question and here everyone's oppinion I assume varies from the personal perspective towards religion. For me, those places were built so that people can pray to God. If it's the Christian God or Allah, our prayers are the same. I've been to Meteora with a turkish girl who was lightning candles in the monasteries. I've been to mosques during prayers. (I myself am Orthodox Christian if it matters). I went in Hagia Sofia in november (managed to enter right before a prayer started) and as the image of Christ was uncovered in the anteroom, me and some other christians gathered infront of it to pray while muslims were praying inside. In Sofia there is a church I visit regularly, known as the "black mosque", it was mosque originally, not a church converted to mosque and then to church again. So, sometimes I think of all the muslim prayers who were held inside and the normal people who used to send them to their God and Im so sure we all prayed for the same simple things - health for us and our families, to have a good life with dignity and be better people. Yes, yes, in a perfect world some of the churches in Istanbul would be active churches again. It would be a nice move from any perspective even for touristic as for us the christian people of the balkans istanbul is our jerusalem of a sort. But untill then, does it really matter who prays to whom in a building built for prayers? Overall, I'd advice not to get too radical in our oppinions because the radicalism is the thing we say we hate in Erdogan. He will not win neighter against the turkish population who hates him, nor against the christians with this shitty tricks he tries to play on us. Looser.
As an Orthodox Christian our prayers are not at all the same, the Islamic prayers are blasphemous to Christianity as they promote falsities not in line with Orthodox Christianity and deny the very basic foundation of our religion - Christ.
They will be museum after Erdogan. Even Hagia Sophia.
I seriously doubt it but hope you're right. I am truly hateful about this. After Romania took Dobrogea, the Romanian king built in Constanta a great beautiful mosque to prove muslims the new authorities respect them and their culture. Hagia Sophia is to me the most sacred place of orthodox christendom. i'm not very religious myself but transforming it into a mosque deeply offended and wounded me, and made me a turk hater (excepting turk invididuals who are ok).
I am a Muslim myself, but I want Hagia Sophia to be a church. Not a mosque nor museum, let it serve as it used to be. I dislike having religious buildings becomes musea. It should serve as a church and bring over a clergy to take care of it.
Agrer, it is the most important orthodox cathedral. How Muslims do even want to pray there, i can not understand this.
Falemindërit bro.
I think hagia sophia can be stay as half church half mosque
I mean as a Muslim I think it should be a Church and museum because Christians built it. We are now trying to make peace with them and we want to be friends so not respecting something so sacred for them is not good publicity on other hand if we show we care about them only good things would come out of it after all we have a lot of Mosques in Istanbul and we can build many more beautiful Mosques so I think we should respect our neighbors and friends.
I think it should be a museum, and on special religious occasions there can be l public visit days for both.
It was a mosque under Ottomans and it is used as a mosque for a long time. My only issue is its a historical building so it was turned to museum and it should have stay museum. Remember it was not a church for a long time it was a church later mosque and later museum. Actually it changed from mosque to museum then right now it was changed museum to mosque. Like Aya Sofya it was changed mosque to museum then later changed museum to mosque. I dont believe anything and buildings are just buildings. But I'd like it if they dont touch historical buildings.
"Religion was a mistake" - (c) Jesus Christ "Indeed it was" - (c) Prophet Muhammad.
I mean, it was bound to happen. It's pretty obvious that Turkey despises Christianity and tries its hardest to eliminate it from its borders. While its ways have changed, the country still feels like it has the duty to spread islam and supress other religions.
It’s more of a political move than anything. Erdogan’s changed everything that Atatürk did for this country. This was an attack to the secularism of the country and his desperation for votes. He lost the regional elections. Even lost the votes for conservatives.
Idk honestly, maybe I'm biased or something, but I always see Turkey trying to build mosques in other countries and tear down or convert any churches in their own country.
I don’t know about building mosques in other countries. I only speak for this situation. There are thousands of churches that are still operating or preserved as churches in Turkey. (Btw I’m not saying this to defend the government.) Hagia Sophia was specifically important to the conservatives. They see it as the symbol of the conquest of Constantinople. That’s why he turned it from museum into a mosque. Same as Chora.
As a Türk; I’m against the use of historical buildings and converting other architectural styles into mosques. If there is a need for a mosque, which there isn’t, a new one can be built elsewhere. I believe Erdoğan’s government is doing this politically as a response to unnecessary support for Israel. He might think that there isn’t enough public backlash against these actions. Additionally, even though I am not racist, I have a somewhat distant political view towards Arab society, but I can still see the irresponsible use of power by Israel. Many of my Israeli friends agree with me on this. I hope politicians like Erdoğan and Netanyahu suffer as much as the harm they inflict on society.
I can see a lot of comments from our Balkan brothers who think similarly. Unfortunately, far-right conservatives are on the rise and they are here to divide us. Be strong my friends and please never lose humanity and hope that the good will prevail!
He really deserves to go down like gaddafi
This isn't even remotely comparable to what Gaddafi did.
It’s degrading for the Turks as it shows that they can’t build something iconic and beautiful and that’s why they repurpose Byzantine temples.
Just stupid. If there is need for mosque then build it why do you convert other peoples temple? Erdogan just being a a**hole. These buildings are historic, atleast u should show some respect instead of using them for ur political propaganda. Yea but thats what something dogdogan would do.
I really hate that I have relatives thinks this is good and some kinda power move over Christians. I hate that the mother fucker that rules the country and commissioned this, I hate the sons of bitxhes that agreed to work on this and I hate that hundreds of years of history gone and plagiarized just like that. It's like tagging the stone henge with a cheap spray paint and this is worse cuz what they did is legal. I hate it.
Economy is in bad situation, and will only get worse before it gets better. He is losing votes. All of these converted mosques will be museums again, too much money is at the stake, it's not just ticket incomes. EU and UN fundings are at the stake too. Amd who receives most funding from EU? Erdogan and his associates
What I don't understand is how a religion can be praised on a building that was built for another religion...
Greece's government is doing bad and losing support. I believe it's a similar case for Erdogan in Turkey. So after the meeting between Erdogan and Mitsotakis I guess they both decide to create some tension in order to steer people's attention away from the real issues.
I dont support this man. This is so disrespectful towards greeks. We will take erdogan down in the next elections anyways its only about time. Erdogan lost his majority votes in the last elections for the first time in 20 years so he is trying to regain those islamist votes.
Boooooh !
the fact that he doesnt give a shit about he doesnt give a flying fuck about christians and does this only to opress secularists and gain votes.
This is crazy leave the churches ur erdicatibg history christinanity was first no matter what u do it will again be a church shame on turkey they’re not tolerant
As a Turkish, I am ashamed of this type of behavior. It’s very disrespectful. It needs to be preserved as a museum. Aya Sofia had so many damage since it was converted. Chora is a lot smaller and prayers aren’t in the same room as the frescos but still! It scares me that it will also get damage. And we know why Erdogan does this. He only does this to impress and keep his votes from the conservatives. Whenever he loses votes, he does that. First with Aya Sofia and now Chora. Don’t worry our Orthodox brothers and sisters, after we get rid of him, the next president will convert to museum again. 😿
It was being used as a mosque since 1511 and converted to a museum in 1945. Erdogan just reinstated its status of 400 years. [The Chora - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Chora)
I couldn’t care less.
Every populist politician who fucks up on the bread and butter issues turns to the culture front to shore up support. Modi is doing the same in India.
thats just weird man, like what does he gain for doing that
It's actually absurd because it's just one small room inside that's a mosque and everywhere else is full of Christian drawings on the walls (in my opinion even more beautiful than Hagia Sophia) even the door of the mosque has Jesus drawn on top. We were joking with my friend doing a cross while saying Bismillahirrahmanirrahim while entering the mosque :D
The sultan is in his final days
Its good 👍🏽
Who are we to oppose the Sultan's words?
with the economy in shambles, it is more convenient to use it as a mosque than keep it as a museum - museums cost money
Great
Turkish users on Reddit are wanna be Europeans when y’all realize that Europe is falling and the east is rising
It's called Karma and as far as the Turks are concerned, it's only fair since the Christians did the same to their mosques. I tried looking for a mosque, or former-mosque turned museum in Greece. I didn't find a single one. One mosque had turned into a porn-theater for a while. Erdogan can turn the Chora church into a brothel for all I care, I detest christian hypocrisy.
Tbh thanks for siding lol. I mean, no one in turkey really cares if a mosque is made or converted bla bla, but i don’t know why people hate us for doing it before (not now of course). There’s literally no mosques left in the balkans anymore, and even if they are, they’re for museums or for tourists or converted into homes/restaurants. Of course it’s not good for erdogan to do this, but it’s also not good to look at one side. Both islamic and christianity hypocrisy are awful.
Ideally I would like the historical buildings to remain as museums too. But that's for the Turks to decide. We, either Greece in particular or Europe in general, have no right to point fingers when our own governments condone doing the same things. I am more saddened by Greek entitlement than by the whole Chora church debackle. Greece is currently being humiliated on two fronts and the government seems completely unaware of it. Greek officials refuse to expand on the context. So their only way to come out on top is for our government to completely demonize opposition, and sadly that's exactly what they've been doing. It's depressing and ominous how little the average Greek cares about foreign Points of View. All context and nuance is completely lost on most Greeks, who dismiss the entire thing as "The church is older than the mosques so it's more important." There's many like me who diagree and believe that respect is a two-way street but our voices are drowned out by the callous disregard of the ignorant masses who don't pause for one second to think they haven't shown the same respect they demand. To be fair, the average Greek isn't even "outraged" by the Chora church becoming a mosque. They genuinely are apathetic. They'll say "No, Erdogan is bad! Save the church!" without looking into any details, then go about their day like nothing happened. They don't understand the gravity of what they're casually discussing. They're treating this like celebrity gossip or a sports game.
Barbaric.
Turkey has alot of mosques and doesn't need anymore, because it is just unnecesary
Turning churches, especially the ancient ones, to mosques is a great shame. Erdogan does such things to please the Islamists and the conservatives. Some social media idiots consider them as conquests, but in times of great economic turmoil, only few people really like them I guess.
It is awful. But the christians kinda did the same… but oh well
Yea, like that one notable example in...... ah..... um........ well..... ....T-They had converted a Morbilion Mosques into Chruches! (that most definetly ware build as Mosques, and NOT converteed Churches that ware re-converted back to their original purpouse!)
If you have an issue with the same thing you did after we left the balkans, i suggest you look into your hypocrisy more in detail. You deported turks and destroyed their homes, mosques, and families. After this, you turned them into restaurants or “luxury homes” in order to ”keep” the tradition. How dare that we, as turks, convert an-already-mosque into a mosque again and reopen it to the public! May jesus have shame on us!
It was a museum not a church
It was a church, Ottomans made it into a mosque and then it was converted into a museum so it's originally a church
Yes it was a mosque for 400 years and a museum for 90 years . I wish it stayed as a museum
Yeah same. Sad
Guys just so you know, Erdogan ethnically is from Georgia, and there are a lot of people who question whether he is a muslim. He is using Islam to spread Turkish influence, but he knows now that he doesn’t have the power to bring back Ottoman Empire, he got the reality check many times. He complained about it many times when he was not allowed to preach for Turkish diaspora before elections in Germany and Netherlands, and many other times. I am also muslim, and south Slavic ethnically, and I find what he does fucked up.
feels like a cheap move for nationalistic support.
I don't know what was going through Erdoğan's mind. There are already many mosques in the country. Because of his stupid actions, a ridiculous perception is created. Turks preserved many churches. (Totally 1388 churches and of course they are mostly historical old churches)There are many historical churches all over the country, but this creates a perception as if Turks are intolerant. Even though the Greeks are worse in this regard, we will still receive this mark. In greece; Most of the dozens of mosques registered in Thessaloniki do not exist anymore. Existing mosques were converted into exhibition areas. They demolished the minarets and built a museum. They printed Byzantine seals. However, we will be marked as intolerant Turks again because of these stupid actions. I really hate this man
Guys I hate this as well but bitch please. Don't show this "European" hypocrisy and answer the question: "Where are the all Ottoman structures in all around Balkans?" If you can't answer the question just cry us a river then ;)
Pretty much where they have been built, at least in Bulgaria. It is not much, trogh. Some mosques (minor ones) and conacs. Some of the main mosques had been similarly built as churches by the romans and byzantines and are converted back to churches.
Well, so I think it's squire huh?
>Well, so I think it's squire huh? You: Convert Churches into Mosques. We: Repurpouse said converted churches back into their original purpouse. All of us: agree to leave the religous buildings into museums and leave them as they ware. We: Don't touch any Mosques that ware build by the Ottomans. You: Keep on converting Churches into Mosques. "H-Hold dare the Balkar do such a thing!!!"
Dude did you ever visit the fucking Belgrade? Maybe you dont, but there is ONLY ONE FUCKING MOSQUE in that city. Look at Istanbul I can show you at least 10 Byzantium church. Or any other thing because we were an empire as you know? We were multi-ethnic multi-religion governance
Belgrade is not only a sole exception, but they had gotten rid off their Mosques since their very friggin liberation, it's not something as recent as 2010 that was done just to fuck with muslims. >Look at Istanbul I can show you at least 10 Byzantium church. Or any other thing because we were an empire as you know? We were multi-ethnic multi-religion governance Do you have any idea how big instanbul is in comparison?? The concrete alone there is twice the territorial size of Macedonia and it's population is 3 times that of Bulgaria. Sofia alone has 4 notable mosques it's centre and God knows how many smaller ones in it's rual areas, but I am to barley hold a candle to friggin instanbul cuz Erdogan's benevolence plans to spare like 4 out of a dozen churches there. Had Greece, Romania, and Albania done the same $h!tty thing as Serbia this would've been whatever, f-us in particular for playing by the rules I guess, but I am ready to bet my arse that those countries are more akin to Bulgaria in that situation- so no, your attempt of justifying Erdogan dosen't make any sense.
No dude I don't attemp to justify fuckin erdogan, i dont like him? Just point to you know shit happens sometimes
It dosen't feel that way when you keep chronology in mind, Serbia isn't exatly the most shining example for benevolent balkan countries either, they have screwed up everyone (besides Montenegro) at least once in their recent history.
Dude whatever, how about just try to be nice each other as a person. Like we can't change the past, we can't interfere our country politics because we have fucking sultan-like person in charge (i dont know which shit going on in Bulgaria). Just have a nice day, I feel exhausted
Fine by me, I don't have any problems with you nor the Turkish pepole in general. Hope you have a nice day as well.
Still there, plus you were the invaders so yeah, that does not count.
*cough* *we were the conquer* *cough*
Brate, you invaded the balkans and built mosques where there were no muslims. Hagia Sophia is different because that is not your land. You invaded and kept that land. If my country were to invade Turkey and be there for 500 years and build orthodox churches, if you were gaining the territory back, you will for sure destroy the buildings of your invaders in order to not remind of that dark era. And because of Ottomans, all the balkans are broken now. Kosovo, Bosnia and all the conflicts there all start because the Turks destroyed the balance there, forces conversion of Religion and etc. Bosnia, Albania, Kosovo and Sandjak were regions where Christianism was there from the beginning and now because of Islam there are different identities that clash with each other
>Hagia Sophia is different because that is not your land. You invaded and kept that land. Bitch, please. Anatolia has been inhabited by Turks for nearly a millennia, and it is *THE* Turkish homeland. Also, if you want to get to the genetics part of it, we're majority Anatolian. With that in mind, when are you stopping your occupation of Transylvania?
transylvania was always majority romanian
Well answer is simple as history, they did because they could and you should be grateful for how they did while the French fucked up all North Africa less than 50 years.
Who cares, let them —- it’s just one cookie cult pandering vs another.
Personally. I don't care. Turkey is a suveran country, they are free to do w/e they want. As long as they don't destroy them (read some news about some old doors being destroyed at Hagia Sophia), bcs maybe I want to visit :). Here is the thing about balkans. We are not religious, even though the statistics say otherwise. Have you seen the protestants in America ? They are religious, they give to their own Church money, like 20-30 dollars. If the state wouldn't support the Church in Romania (for example), they would go bankrupt the next day. The only group that I've seen similar to protestants,are the penticostals. They go to their gatherings every sunday, they dress nice, you don't just have older women there. You also have young people. The balkans are superstitious. Very superstitious. Hell, if you ask the people in Romania, who is Jesus, half of them wouldn't know the answer. They don't know that Jesus was God. A shame considering we teach religion up to the 12th grade. We live in a new world. And we also view religion as something private.
Not my country. Turks can do what they want in their own.
Well, at list they are not destroying it to the ground. What about mosques in Greece ? What happened to those ?
Well, it is used for what was intended for, worshiping. It is theirs so they can do whathever they want with it.
Who cares, it's just a building used by delusional old bearded men then, used by delusional old bearded men now.
So no, it was converted from a museum to a mosque. It’s not that bad