Newly built Taksim Mosque is seen at Taksim Square shortly before its inauguration in central Istanbul, Turkey May 28, 2021. Reuters/Dilara Senkaya
Istanbul: Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan inaugurated a landmark new mosque on Istanbul’s Taksim Square on Friday, fulfilling a long-time dream to build a Muslim house of worship in the city’s main public space that has become a symbol of the modern Turkish Republic.
Erdogan joined dozens of mask-wearing worshippers for the first prayers at the towering 3,000-capacity mosque on Taksim. Hundreds of others performed their prayers outside the mosque.
"Taksim Mosque was brought to our Istanbul following a nearly one-and-a-half century struggle,” Erdogan said in a speech following the Friday prayers, insisting that plans for the mosque date back to a Russian-Turkish war between 1877-1878.
It’s the third landmark mosque Erdogan has inaugurated in Istanbul. The massive Camlica Mosque, erected on a tall hill, opened its doors in March 2019.
Erdogan himself described the Taksim mosque as the "third sentimental legacy” and said he hoped it would "illuminate our city like an oil lamp for centuries to come.”
