Hagia Sophia

Turkey urged by US to respect Hagia Sophia

In its annual International Religious Freedom Report, the US State Department notes that senior US government officials have continued to publicly and privately express to Turkish officials their view that Hagia Sophia, a former Orthodox Christian cathedral in Istanbul, is a monument of exceptional significance that must be preserved in a way that respects its religious history.

Akar says Greece would not want war with Turkey

Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar said on Wednesday he was certain that Greeks would not want an armed conflict with Turkey over maritime dumpsites in the Aegean and the Eastern Mediterranean.

"I want to underline in a mathematical certainty that Greeks would not want to stage a war with Turkey," Akar told the private broadcaster A Haber in an interview on June 10.

Row over Hagia Sophia an artificial crisis: Akşener

İYİ (Good) Party chair Meral Akşener has criticized President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan for sparking "artificial crises" in order to divert people's attention from economic and other pressing issues and suggested that the government's recent demand to turn the Hagia Sophia museum into a mosque was one of them.

Ankara hails anti-racist protests in US

Turkey's ruling party spokesman on June 3 hailed demands for equality as anti-racist protests continue in the country after the killing of African-American man George Floyd. 

Turkey is against all groups trying to turn legitimate protests in the US violent and bring public order under their destructive influence, said Ömer Çelik, spokesman for the AKP, after a party board meeting. 

Turkey urges restraint to US over protests

Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu has urged restraint to the United States over ongoing mass protests in reaction to the killing of an unarmed black man at the hands of police in Minneapolis.

"It's not acceptable that the police could kill anybody regardless of his race, religion or faith in such a way," Çavuşoğlu told private broadcaster 24TV in an interview on June 3.

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