Turkey and Greece exchange harsh words over Hagia Sophia prayers
ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Turkey and Greece exchanged harsh words on Saturday over the conversion of Istanbul's Hagia Sophia into a mosque, a day after Islamic prayers were held at the ancient site for the first time in nine decades.
President Tayyip Erdogan, who attended Friday's ceremony that sealed his ambition to restore Muslim worship at Hagia Sophia, did not name Greece but said critics of the move were simply against Muslims and Turkey.
Greek criticism of the move has been especially scathing, underlining tense ties between Greece and Turkey. Hagia Sophia was previously a museum and most Greeks view it as central to their Orthodox Christian religion: church bells tolled in mourning across Greece on Friday.
"We see that the targets of those countries who have made so much noise in recent days are not Hagia Sophia or the eastern Mediterranean," Erdogan said in a televised speech.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/turkey-and-greece-exchange-harsh-words-over-hagia-sophia-prayers/ar-BB17aEg0?li=BBnb7Kz
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