SYRIZA condemns the conversion of the Monastery of Chora into mosque
Main opposition SYRIZA party condemned on Tuesday Turkey’s decision to formally open a former Byzantine church in Istanbul as a mosque, while it also criticized the government’s reaction as too soft.
“SYRIZA unequivocally condemns the Turkish authoritie’s decision for the operation of the Monastery of Chora as Muslim mosque,” the party said in a statement.
“The apologetic, condescending, substandard reaction/response of the Foreign Ministry to [the Turkish president Recep Tayyip] Erdogan’s new challenge to turn the Monastery of Chora into a mosque, after Hagia Sophia, is revealing of the kind of foreign policy that the government is practicing towards Turkey,” the party added.
It called on the government to “take diplomatic actions against this new Turkish provocation,” which comes days before the Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis meeting with Erdogan in Ankara.
Four years after his government had designated it a Muslim house of prayer, on Monday Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan remotely presided over a ceremony for the reopening of the Church of St. Saviour in Chora, known as Kariye in Turkish, as a mosque.
The decision of the Turkish authorities “constitutes a challenge to the international community, as it alters and insults its character as a UNESCO world cultural heritage monument belonging to humanity,” the Foreign Ministry said in a statementy.
