Turkish president Erdoğan unveils mosque on Taksim Square
by Bethan McKernan in Istanbul from on (#5JCX3)
Project marks culmination of president's dream of dismantling Ataturk's secular legacy
Taksim Square, one of Istanbul's most famous cultural battlegrounds and the scene of 2013 protests against the Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoan, has officially embraced a new religious identity after the inauguration of an imposing new mosque.
The controversial project was opened by Erdoan on Friday after four years of construction. With two minarets and a 30-metre-high dome, the huge art deco building symbolically dwarfs the square's Republic Monument - which depicts Turkey's secularist founding father, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk - as well as the nearby Hagia Triada Greek Orthodox church.
Continue reading...