Erdogan offers mosque in Athens in exchange for Istanbul convent
Turkish PM offers funds for Islamic holy site in Greek capital
(ANSAmed) - ATHENS - With Muslims in Greece angered by the government's failure to build a large mosque in Athens, Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan is said to have offered to pay for a proper place of worship for the Greek capital's large Muslim community as well as the numerous tourists of the same faith who visit it every year. According to Greek media outlets, the offer was addressed to his Greek counterpart Antonis Samaras in a 40-minute meeting yesterday in Doha, where they were both on official visits for talks with Qatari authorities, and is the latest move by the Turkish leader to appear ever more as ''the guardian of the Arab and Muslim worlds''. Samaras reportedly replied that the plan to build the Athens mosque (in a city with a 300,000-strong Muslim community) had already been approved by Parliament in September 2011, after almost 40 years of proposals and plans discussed but never approved. In any case, several analysts say that Samaras is unlikely to take Erdogan up on the offer, given the age-old hostility between the two countries. Other observers instead claim that the Turkish prime minister's offer might become part of diplomatic maneuvering (also aiming to promote Erdogan's image as someone attentive to the problems of the Muslim world) to settle a number of unresolved issues between Ankara and Athens, including two of particular significance. The first is the seminary of Greek Orthodox studies in Halki, on the Turkish island of Heybeliada in the Marmara Sea (near Istanbul), shut down by Turkish authorities 42 years ago.
Ecumenical patriarch of Constantinople Bartholomew I has been trying to get it reopened for many years. The second - to which Erdogan has given special attention since becoming premier - concerns the conditions of the Turkish minority living in Western Thrace. Numbering about 120,000, they speak Turkish but are considered by Greek authorities to be ''Greek citizens of the Islamic religion''. Connected is also the dispute over muftis (Muslim judicial authorities) and imams (religious leaders) between the Greek government and its Turkish counterpart - both of whom claim the right to appoint the religious leaders of the minorities living in the other's country.
Ecumenical patriarch of Constantinople Bartholomew I has been trying to get it reopened for many years. The second - to which Erdogan has given special attention since becoming premier - concerns the conditions of the Turkish minority living in Western Thrace. Numbering about 120,000, they speak Turkish but are considered by Greek authorities to be ''Greek citizens of the Islamic religion''. Connected is also the dispute over muftis (Muslim judicial authorities) and imams (religious leaders) between the Greek government and its Turkish counterpart - both of whom claim the right to appoint the religious leaders of the minorities living in the other's country.
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