Byzantine architecture

Earlier this week Turkey formally opened the monastery of Chora, a former Byzantine church and UNESCO World Heritage Site in Istanbul, as a mosque. The move follows the conversion of the Hagia Sophia into a mosque in 2020, and has drawn international criticism.

The US Department of State is aware of Turkey's conversion of another historical Byzantine church into a mosque, and urges the government to "respect" the "diverse histories" of heritage sites that have hosted different religious communities.

Education, Religious Affairs and Sports Minister Kyriakos Pierrakakis has said he raised the conversion of a former Byzantine church in Istanbul, the Church of St. Saviour in Chora, into a mosque during his first official visit to the Vatican in Rome.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan formally opened a former Byzantine church in Istanbul as a mosque on Monday, four years after his government had designated it a Muslim house of prayer, despite criticism from neighboring Greece.

The Hellenic American Leadership Council, an influential Greek-American advocacy group, has launched a petition against Ankara's conversion of another important Byzantine monument, the Chora Church, into a mosque.

The newspaper Yeni Safak reported that the Turkish authorities are continuing with their plans to convert another significant Byzantine monument into a mosque, intending to open it to Muslim worshippers for the Friday prayers on February 23.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has strategically utilized the symbolic significance of Hagia Sophia, once the world's largest Byzantine cathedral, which he reconverted into a mosque in 2020, in order to mobilize his devout and nationalist supporters ahead of Sunday's runoff vote. "The entire West got mad - but I did it," he said during a rally in Istanbul on Saturday.

Ankara on July 9 welcomed the U.N. Security Council's decision to extend the delivery of humanitarian aid from Turkey to northwestern Syria for the next 12 months.

Earlier, the U.N. Security Council voted to extend the authorization of the cross-border mechanism to aid Syrian people.

The council mandate for the operation was due to expire on Saturday.

A settlement for the Cyprus issue is "key" to the resolution of the tensions in the Mediterranean, according to Wendy Morton, the U.K.'s minister for European Neighbourhood.

Speaking during an interview with private broadcaster CNN Türk, Morton said that the U.K. supports a "comprehensive, fair and lasting" settlement to the Cyprus issue.

Turkey and the United States might have differences on some issues, but the two NATO allies are on the same page regarding the continuation of cross-border assistance to Syrians, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield told a group of journalists on June 4.