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> Politics

Turkish President Erdogan provokes again: My dream as a boy was to free Hagia Sophia

He addressed a crowd of Muslims after Friday prayer

Newsroom July 17 05:33

While Greece is calling for strict sanctions at the EU summit against Turkey for the conversion of Hagia Sophia into a mosque provocation Turkish President  Recep Tayyip Erdogan continued his belligerent language, claiming his decision had freed Hagia Sophia.

“It was a dream since I was young to free Hagia Sophia from the shackles of slavery,” the Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan told a crowd of Muslims after Friday prayers, just a week before Hagia Sophia became a mosque, adding that his decision had broken these chains.

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The Turkish president also said that he was not deterred by any of the international reactions, stressing: “The opening of Hagia Sophia as a mosque is a matter of our sovereignty.”

Erdogan said that the international outcry to Hagia Sophia conversion were empty of content. He also announced that the first prayer in Hagia Sophia on Friday, July 24 will be attended by 1,000 to 1,500 people.

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