Turkey formally opens another former Byzantine-era church as a mosque

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has formally opened a former Byzantine church in Istanbul as a mosque. The move came four years after Erdogan’s government had designated it a Muslim house of prayer. The Church of St. Saviour in Chora is known as Kariye in Turkey. The formal opening comes after years of restoration. Turkey converted the structure into a mosque in 2020. It came soon after it similarly turned Istanbul’s landmark Haghia Sophia into a Muslim house of prayer. Both conversions drew praise from Muslim faithful but criticism from Greece and other countries who had urged Turkey to protect the historic monuments.