Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan inaugurated a Syriac church in Istanbul on Sunday, praising community coexistence, the first in the secular and predominantly Muslim republic of Turkey, founded in 1923, AFP and Agerpres reported.

“Jews, Christians, we are happy that all communities in our country live together,” Turkey’s president told a crowd of religious dignitaries and officials amid violence in Israel and the Palestinian territories.

“There are many problems in the world today. Turkey is a country where several communities have lived in peace for centuries,” he added.

“We have always protected the oppressed from the oppressors, it is our duty,” Erdogan said, noting that since he came to power 20 years ago, “20 churches” have been renovated across the country.

Sait Susin, president of the Assyrian Foundation in Istanbul, expressed his excitement a day before the church opened to the faithful: “This is the first church built after the foundation of the Republic of Turkey to open its doors. We are very happy.”

Located on the European side of the Bosphorus, in the peripheral district of Yesilkoy, home to the majority of Syrian Christians in Turkey – others live in the southeast of the country, near the Syrian border, St. Ephraim Orthodox Church was funded by this community of 17,000 members.

The majestic white building, located in the center of the green quarter, is designed for the simultaneous reception of 750 believers.

Syrian Orthodox Church of St. Ephraim in Istanbul, Turkey (Photo: AA/ABACA / Abaca Press / Profimedia)

The head of the Turkish state, who has already laid the first stone during a ceremony organized in August 2019, appealed to the City Hall of Istanbul with a request to find free land.

A year later, in July 2020, President Erdoğan, a devout and conservative Muslim, converted Istanbul’s Hagia Sophia into a mosque and then demanded the conversion of the Church of the Holy Savior in Chora, also built by the Byzantines in the 5th century lea en and which has remained closed ever since. for the public.

The first church built in Turkey after the founding of the Republic of Turkey in 1923

St. Ephraim’s church was due to be inaugurated in February 2023, but the ceremony was postponed due to a massive earthquake that left southern Turkey in ruins, leaving at least 50,000 dead and devastating the city of Antakya, formerly Antioch, one of the cradles of Christianity. .

Orthodox Syrians pray in Aramaic, the ancient language spoken by Jesus. Based until 1932 in Mardin in southeastern Turkey, their church headquarters is now in Damascus, Syria.

Saint Ephrem Church is the first church built in Turkey after the founding of the Republic of Turkey in 1923 by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, Sait Susin recalls.

During the last century, some of the existing churches managed to be restored, and some other small Christian buildings were able to receive their believers in a discreet atmosphere.

But this was happening “without official permission,” he told Anadolu news agency. “This is the first officially built church. It is a great pride,” he added, saying that he expects many visitors from all over the country and even from abroad.

Members of Turkey’s Christian minority, which is estimated to be 0.2% of the population – as the secular country does not keep statistics on cults – regularly complain that they are treated as second-class citizens in the predominantly Muslim country of 82 million people. residents

After the official inauguration, next Sunday, October 15, the first liturgy called “Consecration of the temple” will take place.