Turkey will not take a step back on the issue of Hagia Sophia, is the message sent to the international community by Turkish Minister of Foreign Affairs Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu.
In statements to the Hürriyet newspaper, the head of the Turkish diplomacy characteristically answers “No, there is no question of giving up on this issue anymore. Our President has discussed it with the President of Russia. Right now everyone is saying ‘we respect your decision, but let the cultural heritage be preserved.’ Those who used to say ‘do not open it as a mosque,’ now have began to support it. Some countries that can not digest it, such as Greece, still support the opposite, but there will be no giving up on this issue,” reports ethnos.gr.
Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu reiterated the well-known “accusation” against Greece for the lack of a mosque in Athens and again raised the issue of “oppression” of the Muslims of western Thrace. “Greece is today the only country in Europe without a mosque in its capital. There is no mosque in Thessaloniki either, the second largest city in the country.”
Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu, also commenting on UNESCO’s reactions, said that it was not Turkey’s obligation to inform it of anything. The relevant UNESCO convention, he stressed, is not opposite.