Tag: Camlica Mosque

  • Turkey’s secularists worried by ‘gigantic’ new mosque

    Turkey’s secularists worried by ‘gigantic’ new mosque

    CWN – April 04, 2013

    Caliph-Erdogan4From Our Store: Liturgical Year 2012-2013, Vol. 4: Easter (eBook)

    Turkey’s Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan is pushing forward with plans to build a gigantic mosque, despite public criticism.

    The giant mosque with its six minarets, perched on a hill overlooking the sea, that would be visible from any point in Istanbul, would be an enduring reminder of Erdogan’s rule. Turkish secularists have regularly voiced concerns about the prime minister’s support for Islam. Since Erdogan took power in 2002, 17,000 new mosques have been built in Turkey.

    via Turkey’s secularists worried by ‘gigantic’ new mosque : News Headlines – Catholic Culture.

  • Plans for giant mosque overlooking Istanbul stoke secularists’ fears

    Plans for giant mosque overlooking Istanbul stoke secularists’ fears

    Thomas Seibert        

    AD20130305724400-Camlica_hill_i

    ISTANBUL // A government plan to build a giant mosque on an Istanbul hill overlooking the Bosphorus has fanned concerns among secularist Turks that Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s ruling party is steering the secular republic towards an Islamist system.

    Work on the new mosque, which is to have six minarets and occupy an area of 15,000 square meters on Camlica, a hill on the Asian side of the Turkish metropolis, is expected to begin this month. Mr Erdogan, the prime minister and leader of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), has said that the aim was to finish the project within two and a half years.

    That announcement has secular critics of the Erdogan government worried.

    “There are many places to build a mosque in Istanbul, but they want to send a message,” Mehmet Ali Ediboglu, a legislator of the secularist Republican People’s Party (CHP), Turkey’s biggest opposition group, said by telephone yesterday.

    “That message is that they want to erect an Islamic republic in place of the secular system. They do that step by step.”

    Erdogan Bayraktar, the minister for construction in Mr Erdogan’s cabinet and a member of the AKP, told the Hurriyet newspaper last month that the project had political significance.

    “The aim of building the Camlica mosque is to create a work symbolising the era of AKP rule,” Mr Bayraktar said.

    Since coming to power more than ten years ago, the AKP, an offshoot of a banned Islamist party, has been accused by secular groups of following a hidden agenda with the aim of turning Turkey into an Islamist state, a charge the party denies.

    The AKP says that it has repeatedly won solid parliamentary majorities for its policies and that it has boosted basic rights of citizens in the last ten years, not limited them.

    Although Mr Erdogan’s party has won three consecutive parliamentary elections since 2002 with a steadily rising share of votes that reached almost 50 per cent at the poll two years ago, plans for the Camlica mosque have rekindled the debate about where he wants to take Turkey.

    Mr Ediboglu said the government was trying to win local, parliamentary and presidential elections in 2014 and 2015 by exploiting the religious feelings of voters.

    “This is not piety, this is doing politics with religion,” he said. Mr Ediboglu said the AKP’s decision to end the ban of the headscarf for female students at Turkey’s universities a few years ago had served the same aim.

    Istanbul has a rich heritage of Muslim, Christian and Jewish history and is home to two of the most famous Ottoman mosques in the world, the Blue Mosque and the Suleymaniye Mosque. The Hagia Sophia, a Byzantine church built 1,500 years ago, served as the principal Ottoman mosque for centuries, but was turned into a museum after the founding of the republic in 1923.

    The new mosque will overshadow some of Istanbul’s famous houses of worship by its sheer size, critics say. The Blue Mosque is the only mosque with six minarets in Istanbul’s central area so far. A newly-built mosque in the outlying disctrict of Arnavutkoy has six minarets as well, but is far from the inner city.

    On Camlica, the area surrounding the mosque will cover a total of 250,000 square meters and feature a museum, a cafe, children’s playgrounds, a platform offering a view of Istanbul and a park, Mustafa Kara, the mayor of Uskudar, the Istanbul district that includes Camlica, told a television interviewer last month.

    “It is a big project,” he said, adding that the order to build the mosque had come from the ministry for construction in Ankara. “When we received the plans, we were very excited,” Mr Kara, who is a member of the AKP, said in the interview.

    Page 2 of 2

    According to news reports, Mr Erdogan personally ordered some changes to the design of the mosque. The reports put the cost of the project at 100m Lira (Dh204m). There has been no official statement about the cost.

    The prime minister announced the Camlica mosque project last year and immediately angered critics by declaring his government was building a mosque “that can be seen from everywhere in Istanbul”.

    The CHP in Uskudar and Turkey’s Chamber of Architects have turned to the courts to stop the project. “The plan will bring with it a destruction of the Istanbul and the Bosphorus silhouette,” the chamber said in a statement.

    Other critics point out that no one in Uskudar had asked for a mosque to be built on the hill in the first place.

    Canan Gullu, president of the Federation of Turkish Women’s Associations and an outspoken critic of the Erdogan government, said there was “no shortage of mosques” in the country.

    “Our prime minister wants to erect a monument to himself and the AKP,” Ms Gullu said by telephone yesterday. She added that the project was also a sign that under Mr Erdogan, Turkey was turning more and more towards the Muslim world.

    “A mosque that can be seen from every point in Istanbul will be a clear message to the Middle East,” she said. “The AKP has stressed the fact that Turkey is a Muslim country in certain areas ever since 2002. If that is modernity, I don’t want to see it.”

    But it remains unclear whether the worries about the Camlica mosque would have any effect on the project itself.

    Mr Ediboglu, the CHP politician, said the AKP was looking only at its own grass roots and was not interested in what other parts of society felt.

    “Concern about the AKP is growing” in Turkish society as a whole, he said. “But they want votes, they want to stay in power. They are only watching their own followers.”

    tseibert@thenational.ae

    One-page article

    ISTANBUL // A government plan to build a giant mosque on an Istanbul hill overlooking the Bosphorus has fanned concerns among secularist Turks that Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s ruling party is steering the secular republic towards an Islamist system.

    Work on the new mosque, which is to have six minarets and occupy an area of 15,000 square meters on Camlica, a hill on the Asian side of the Turkish metropolis, is expected to begin this month. Mr Erdogan, the prime minister and leader of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), has said that the aim was to finish the project within two and a half years.

    That announcement has secular critics of the Erdogan government worried.

    “There are many places to build a mosque in Istanbul, but they want to send a message,” Mehmet Ali Ediboglu, a legislator of the secularist Republican People’s Party (CHP), Turkey’s biggest opposition group, said by telephone yesterday.

    “That message is that they want to erect an Islamic republic in place of the secular system. They do that step by step.”

    Erdogan Bayraktar, the minister for construction in Mr Erdogan’s cabinet and a member of the AKP, told the Hurriyet newspaper last month that the project had political significance.

    “The aim of building the Camlica mosque is to create a work symbolising the era of AKP rule,” Mr Bayraktar said.

    Since coming to power more than ten years ago, the AKP, an offshoot of a banned Islamist party, has been accused by secular groups of following a hidden agenda with the aim of turning Turkey into an Islamist state, a charge the party denies.

    The AKP says that it has repeatedly won solid parliamentary majorities for its policies and that it has boosted basic rights of citizens in the last ten years, not limited them.

    Although Mr Erdogan’s party has won three consecutive parliamentary elections since 2002 with a steadily rising share of votes that reached almost 50 per cent at the poll two years ago, plans for the Camlica mosque have rekindled the debate about where he wants to take Turkey.

    Mr Ediboglu said the government was trying to win local, parliamentary and presidential elections in 2014 and 2015 by exploiting the religious feelings of voters.

    “This is not piety, this is doing politics with religion,” he said. Mr Ediboglu said the AKP’s decision to end the ban of the headscarf for female students at Turkey’s universities a few years ago had served the same aim.

    Istanbul has a rich heritage of Muslim, Christian and Jewish history and is home to two of the most famous Ottoman mosques in the world, the Blue Mosque and the Suleymaniye Mosque. The Hagia Sophia, a Byzantine church built 1,500 years ago, served as the principal Ottoman mosque for centuries, but was turned into a museum after the founding of the republic in 1923.

    The new mosque will overshadow some of Istanbul’s famous houses of worship by its sheer size, critics say. The Blue Mosque is the only mosque with six minarets in Istanbul’s central area so far. A newly-built mosque in the outlying disctrict of Arnavutkoy has six minarets as well, but is far from the inner city.

    On Camlica, the area surrounding the mosque will cover a total of 250,000 square meters and feature a museum, a cafe, children’s playgrounds, a platform offering a view of Istanbul and a park, Mustafa Kara, the mayor of Uskudar, the Istanbul district that includes Camlica, told a television interviewer last month.

    “It is a big project,” he said, adding that the order to build the mosque had come from the ministry for construction in Ankara. “When we received the plans, we were very excited,” Mr Kara, who is a member of the AKP, said in the interview.

    According to news reports, Mr Erdogan personally ordered some changes to the design of the mosque. The reports put the cost of the project at 100m Lira (Dh204m). There has been no official statement about the cost.

    The prime minister announced the Camlica mosque project last year and immediately angered critics by declaring his government was building a mosque “that can be seen from everywhere in Istanbul”.

    The CHP in Uskudar and Turkey’s Chamber of Architects have turned to the courts to stop the project. “The plan will bring with it a destruction of the Istanbul and the Bosphorus silhouette,” the chamber said in a statement.

    Other critics point out that no one in Uskudar had asked for a mosque to be built on the hill in the first place.

    Canan Gullu, president of the Federation of Turkish Women’s Associations and an outspoken critic of the Erdogan government, said there was “no shortage of mosques” in the country.

    “Our prime minister wants to erect a monument to himself and the AKP,” Ms Gullu said by telephone yesterday. She added that the project was also a sign that under Mr Erdogan, Turkey was turning more and more towards the Muslim world.

    “A mosque that can be seen from every point in Istanbul will be a clear message to the Middle East,” she said. “The AKP has stressed the fact that Turkey is a Muslim country in certain areas ever since 2002. If that is modernity, I don’t want to see it.”

    But it remains unclear whether the worries about the Camlica mosque would have any effect on the project itself.

    Mr Ediboglu, the CHP politician, said the AKP was looking only at its own grass roots and was not interested in what other parts of society felt.

    “Concern about the AKP is growing” in Turkish society as a whole, he said. “But they want votes, they want to stay in power. They are only watching their own followers.”

    Read more: http://www.thenational.ae/news/world/europe/plans-for-giant-mosque-overlooking-istanbul-stoke-secularists-fears#ixzz2MeA2bcXe
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  • Resurrecting the Ottoman Glory of Istanbul?

    Resurrecting the Ottoman Glory of Istanbul?

    Resurrecting the Ottoman Glory of Istanbul?

    All current historical renovation-restoration efforts account to the reinvention of a neo-Ottoman eclectic style,” said Edhem Eldem, history professor at Boğaziçi University.

    Nilay VARDAR
    nilay@bianet.org
    İstanbul – BIA News Desk
    16 January 2013, Wednesday

    501-260

    “A new gigantic Sinanesque mosque, the restoration of an Orientalist style barracks building, popularization of “1453 conquest” mentality for Istanbul and of course the insertion of “Golden Horn” metaphor in the shape of a bridge…To make a long story short, all these account to the reinvention of a neo-Ottoman eclectic style,” said Edhem Eldem, history professor at Boğaziçi University.

    20 history professors from Boğaziçi University launched a petition against the environmental damage of Istanbul’s new gigantic construction projects, a campaign that has promptly been signed by at least 224 professors from other universities.

    The petition statement warns that Istanbul’s new construction efforts -including third bosporus bridge, golden horn bridge, intercontinental tube highway, Çamlıca Mosque and urbanization efforts in historical districts – might cause irretrievable damages on the city’s silhouette and integrity.

    Edhem Eldem, one of the petition initiators, told bianet about the relation between history and city in the context of urban transformation projects in Istanbul.

    “Academics’ opinions usually get ignored by municipalities”

    What brought 20 historians together to write a petition on Istanbul’s urbanization projects?

    We wanted to underline that Istanbul’s urbanization projects is heading towards a very dangerous direction. While urbanization projects relentlessly intervene Istanbul’s silhouette and integrity, officials always take the most crucial decisions without consulting non-governmental experts.

    They also ignore our ongoing criticism on these projects. Government officials, especially municipalities, consider academics’ opinions as legitimate only in the borders of academia. When we express our concerns over a project, we are usually ignored.

    In one of your articles, you wrote that the Turkish state’s desire to revive a sense of Ottomanism is fundamentally a dangerous phenomenon. Can you explain this in detail? How did the relation between city and history unfold Turkey?

    Following the military coup of 1980, a wave of conservatism invaded Turkey. First, it revealed itself as a counter-leftist argument. Then, it evolved into a Turkish-Islamic synthesis during PM Turgut Özal era. And now, we observe a Turkish nationalism in the challenge to revive a new sense of neo-Ottomanism by bringing together Ottoman and Republic era cultures.

    The biggest issue with this mentality is that it is highly nationalistic and tends to squeeze the plurality of an empire to the singularity of a nation-state. As a result, it doesn’t aim to praise the Ottoman Empire, but it simply praises the Turkish history from a nationalist perspective under the disguise of Ottomanism.

    The situation gets worse when we add the kitsch and nostalgic Ottominism that has emerged since 1990s. In a way, Panorama 1453 Museum and Hotel Les Ottomans represent two different aspects of the same idea.

    What about previous governments? Didn’t they affect Istanbul’s history?

    One way or another, all governments that Istanbul has seen – including Ottoman governments – have affected the historical texture of the city. In the early days of Turkish Republic, when the capital moved from Istanbul to Ankara, it also brought a sense of ignorance towards Istanbul. We also observe several interventions to the city from republican bureaucrats to establish the Kemalist icons by replacing Ottoman ones.

    “Praising the Turkish history under the disguise of Ottomanism”

    What was the purpose?

    This is not to say that every intervention on the city’s silhouette harbored a secret political agenda. We also observe a lot of changes due to economic motives or a desire to look more modern. Some changes in Istanbul’s landscape was pretty mild, while others had several negative consequences.

    The impact of these changes fundamentally depends on the economic resources and political authorities. For example, we can say that former PM Adnan Menderes and former Istanbul major Bedrettin Dalan initiated changes in the city with serious negative consequences.

    Do you believe the current government has a political agenda behind the construction projects?

    We are worried that the current construction projects have a political agenda and cause irretrievable damages to the city. It would be wrong to say that the government has a political agenda vis-à-vis Istanbul, but it is also true that the government aims to convey a political message through these projects.

    The very idea that every government desires to leave a mark during its ruling era is a very political idea. We don’t only trace these political marks through infrastructure repairs and various services, but also with buildings and artifacts “that speak for themselves”: A new gigantic Sinanesque mosque, the restoration of an Orientalist style barracks building, popularization of conquest mentality for Istanbul and of course the insertion of “Golden Horn” metaphor in the shape of a bridge…To make a long story short, all these account to the reinvention of a neo-Ottoman eclectic style.

    “New projects might leave a black stain on the city’s silhouette”

    So, do the efforts to reconstruct the history in Istanbul indeed cause the destruction of another “history” in the city?

    Istanbul has many historical, cultural and archeological layers and it is so hard to protect them at the same time. Sometimes for the preservation of one layer, you need to let go of another. In this sense, it is highly understandable that the Byzantine layer is facing the biggest danger now, but the negative impacts can be reduced to minimal through balanced preservation policies.

    For example, the municipality showed a remarkable patience on the subway construction in Yenikapi district where several ancient ruins were discovered. But at the same time, the municipality insists on the golden horn bridge project, which is not other than black stain on the city’s silhouette.

    The sad part is that these projects are inspired from Ottoman era marvels. In addition to that, we find it hard to understand why only Orientalist barracks and non-remarkable mosques benefit from renovation efforts. We know that a perfect planning doesn’t exist and you can’t preserve all the history of a vibrant city, but it is still possible to choose the best alternatives with a little but more caution and open discussion.

    “This nostalgia is more about a commodification of the city”

    As a historian, which historical building in Istanbul needs the most urgent attention?

    It is so hard to pick one! But I can give a few examples: Valide Mosque in Aksaray district with its ugly and inadequate renovation, or Mecidiye Kasri with a rococo style renovation that doesn’t fit to the rest of Topkapi Palace. These are previous mistakes, but I am aiming to underscore that these mistakes were made in the course of history.

    Nowadays, though, we have the Suzer Plaza which many people call “skycage” and “Holden Horn” Bridge. We can also count the classical style mosque made out of ytong material. Let’s not forget the kitsch Demiroren Mall in the heart of Istiklal Avenue. And lastly, the terrible restoration of ancient city walls in Ayvansaray district maybe.

    One of your articles trace the influence of nostalgia in the current construction efforts? Do you think they are re-honoring the history? But then, why are there so many deconstructions in districts like Tarlabaşı, Fener and Balat?

    This nostalgia was never innocent since it began in 1990s. It usually brings forth new speculations, profits and exchanges of property. Therefore, I would rather say that this nostalgia is more about a commodification.

    But let’s be realist, you can’t completely avoid these dynamics. I think it would be more constructive to look for ways to control these mechanisms before they invade the entire city. We, as Istanbuiots, need to find a way to preserve the history of our city without submitting to the economic pursuit of the few.

    Who are decisions makers in Istanbul? How do you rate Turkey in terms of transparency?

    Isn’t that so obvious with Turkey? We still don’t have a culture of transparency and participation. Therefore, it is hard to say that our urbanization movement could be transparent and participatory either. But at the same time, all this work can’t be done as if it was a referendum. It risks nothing getting done at the end of the day.

    The real issue is about creating a negotiation mechanism where non-government stakeholders and city resident would not feel excluded and uninformed. Ironic it seems, we are raising this criticism over AKP government because they made us feel more heard and participated in the construction efforts compared to previous administrations. But I should warn that they also started to resemble their predecessors by the time they stay in power. (NV)

  • Istanbul’s heritage: Under attack | The Economist

    Istanbul’s heritage: Under attack | The Economist

    How mosques and other new buildings may damage one of Europe’s finest cities

    Dec 1st 2012 | ISTANBUL | from the print edition

    Old sight under new threats

    20121201 EUP003 0

    TURKEY’S first Islamist prime minister, Necmettin Erbakan, came to power in 1996 vowing to put a mosque in Istanbul’s main square. In the heart of the old European quarter, Taksim Square, with its monument of Ataturk and his revolutionaries, remains a symbol of the secular republic. Mr Erbakan was ousted a year later.

    Now a successor, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, is making his former mentor’s dream come true. Secularists have taken to the streets in protest at what they call the Islamists’ “revenge” against the republic. Yet the bulldozers have moved in. Hundreds of trees are to be felled to make room for a replica of the Ottoman army barracks demolished by Ataturk’s successor, Ismet Inonu. The city’s mayor, Kadir Topbas, who comes from Mr Erdogan’s ruling Justice and Development (AK) party, insists that the complex will house art galleries and cafés, but secularists say this is just window-dressing for the new mosque.

    Some fret that such outbursts will bolster Mr Erdogan’s pious base. The real concern should be that the project was rammed through with “zero” public debate, argues Betul Tanbay, a member of the Taksim platform, a lobby group. Korhan Gumus, an architect, says that one effect of the project will be to trap motorists in long tunnels full of toxic fumes. Another is that neither revellers nor demonstrators will be able to mass around the square.

    Much of this is in keeping with Mr Erdogan’s growing propensity to meddle with Turkey’s social and cultural fabric. His calls to criminalise adultery and abortion have been shelved. But his orders for the destruction of giant statues of an Armenian and a Turk in Kars were carried out. This week he called for legal action against a television series that depicts Suleiman the Magnificent as a seducer more than a warrior. Mr Erdogan complained that “30 years of his life was spent in the saddle, not in a palace as you see in TV shows”.

    Until recently, Mr Erdogan was hailed as Istanbul’s saviour. After being elected mayor in 1994 on Mr Erbakan’s ticket, he sought to help the poor and relieved the city of 12m-plus from chronic drought, mountains of refuse and rampant crime. This boosted Mr Erdogan’s career but also drew the ire of the army, who egged on prosecutors to strip him of his mayoral seat, ban him from politics and send him to jail for reciting a nationalist poem.

    Yet even Mr Erdogan’s staunchest supporters are doubtful about his plan to build a giant mosque on Istanbul’s tallest hill, Camlica, on the Asian side of the city (close to his Istanbul home). Again, ordinary citizens have had no say on the mosque, which will house up to 30,000 worshippers and, with six minarets, dominate the city skyline. “Mosques need to have congregations,” notes Mahmut Toptas, a popular imam. Few will scale the hill, a rare green space, to get there. Ducane Cundioglu, a columnist for the Islamist-leaning daily Yeni Safak, calls the mosque “a nightmare that will descend on Istanbul”. A design competition yielded no winner, so the job was awarded to the runners-up, two female architects.

    UNESCO may rescind Istanbul’s world heritage status and move it to “endangered” because it is building a suspension bridge across the Golden Horn. The bridge’s masts obscure the silhouette of the 16th-century Suleymaniye mosque, a masterpiece by the Ottoman architect Sinan. Skyscrapers have already blighted the silhouette of Sultanahmet, the Blue Mosque. The city has pushed out old encampments of gypsies, transvestites and minorities. In the words of Ms Tanbay, Istanbul “is being robbed of its soul”.

    via Istanbul’s heritage: Under attack | The Economist.

  • Prime Minister Erdogan Wants To Build Turkey’s Biggest Mosque In Istanbul

    Prime Minister Erdogan Wants To Build Turkey’s Biggest Mosque In Istanbul

    (Reuters) – Tayyip Erdogan has described his third term as Turkish prime minister as that of a “master”, borrowing from the celebrated Ottoman architect Sinan and the last stage of his storied career after apprenticeship and graduation.

    r ERDOGAN MOSQUE large570

    It’s a lofty allusion.

    Sinan’s 16th-century creations came to define the Ottoman Empire at its apogee, the Suleymaniye Mosque, built for Sultan Suleiman, part of Istanbul’s unmistakable skyline.

    Now, entering a second decade at the helm of a country reveling in its regional might, Erdogan wants to leave his own mark on the cityscape with what will be Turkey’s biggest mosque, a “giant mosque,” he says, “that will be visible from all across Istanbul.”

    To be built on the highest hill on the Asian side of the Bosphorus, planners boast the structure will hold up to 30,000 worshippers and bear six minarets taller than those of the Al-Masjid al-Nabawi, or the Prophet’s Mosque, in Medina.

    It is symbolic of Turkey’s tilt to the east under Erdogan, who has chipped away at the founding secularism of the modern republic and presided over its emergence as a power in the Middle East.

    But the Istanbul elite are up in arms.

    Some have branded the proposed mosque unsightly and ostentatious, a thinly-disguised declaration of victory by Erdogan’s Islamist-rooted government over the secularists and their guardians in the military.

    “On the European side, Sultan Suleiman put his mark on the city with the Suleymaniye Mosque, which could be seen everywhere from old Istanbul,” said Emre Kizilkaya, a blogger and foreign editor at the Hurriyet daily. “Now many think Erdogan wants to put his own mark on the Asian side.”

    Picked in mid-November in a hasty competition limited to Turkish architects, the winning design bears a striking resemblance to Istanbul’s iconic 400-year-old Sultanahmet Mosque, or Blue Mosque, built by a student of Sinan.

    One religiously conservative intellectual called it a “cheap replica” and wrote to Erdogan imploring him not to embarrass coming generations with such “unsightly work.”

    “There’s a saying in Turkish – ‘You don’t discover America again,’” said Oguz Oztuzcu, chairman of the Istanbul Independent Architects’ Association. “You don’t try to make another Sydney Opera House, do you? They’re competing with existing icons.”

    Even the country’s culture minister is unconvinced.

    “It’s not success in today’s world to build gigantic structures. It was success during the era of Sinan. Now it’s just about how much cement you’re using,” said Ertugrul Gunay, a rare dissenting government voice.

    “We should build something like a gem, and it should shine with its beauty, not with its gigantic size.”

    EMBRACING IMPERIAL PAST

    The mosque will sit atop Camlica Hill, once a hunting ground for the Ottoman well-to-do and now a popular viewing point, where couples sip sweet tea among rose bushes and take pictures with their cell phones of this city of over 14 million people.

    Minarets puncture the skyline of European Istanbul.

    Backers of the new mosque say they want to create a similar skyline on the Asian side, and do away with the antennas that now blight the hilltop.

    Ergin Kulunk, president of the Islamic association overseeing the project, said the Asian side lacked a mosque of such a size to cater to the needs of worshippers.

    “It’s a necessity,” he said, and dismissed the storm of criticism over the design, the work of two headscarved female architects.

    “We wanted a classical mosque with a dome, and if you’re going to build a classical mosque with a dome, it’s inevitable it will resemble Hagia Sophia, Selimiye Mosque or the Blue Mosque,” he said.

    Officially, the government did not instigate the project, but it has given the land and Erdogan’s personal endorsement. The cost is estimated at over 100 million lira, or 43 million euros, to be paid for by donors – code, the opposition says, for businessmen out to curry favor with the government.

    The Istanbul Islamic authority, seated near the bustling Grand Bazaar, professed to have little knowledge of the project, but had no complaints. Istanbul has over 3,000 mosques.

    Taking its support from the socially conservative Anatolian heartland, Erdogan’s ruling AK Party has all but won the battle with the old secular elite that emerged with the founding of the modern republic in 1923.

    It has muzzled the military, upholder of secularism, that had ousted four governments since 1960. Reforms in the military and the judiciary were promoted as complying with change demanded for entry to the European Union (EU).

    With Turkey’s bid to join the EU, however, going nowhere, Erdogan is courting old Ottoman lands in the Middle East.

    Economic growth, outstripping Europe, is driven increasingly by trade with the Gulf. Arab businessmen and tourists are flocking to Turkey – up sixfold from Saudi Arabia, 500 percent from Qatar and 400 percent from Kuwait since October 2010.

    The government, meanwhile, is embracing Istanbul’s imperial past, when the Ottoman Empire sprawled across three continents.

    “We must go everywhere our ancestors have been,” Erdogan said on Sunday, and took aim at the makers of a hit Turkish television series, one of the country’s most famous exports, for its gaudy portrayal of Sultan Suleiman.

    “Those who toy with these values should be taught a lesson within the bounds of the law,” he said.

    GRAND DESIGNS

    Such talk has drawn fire from critics who accuse Erdogan of behaving like a modern-day sultan, at home and abroad. Hundreds of military officers have been jailed on charges of plotting a coup against Erdogan; others including academics, journalists and politicians are facing trial on similar accusations.

    Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, smarting from Turkey’s support for the rebels trying to oust him, told a television interviewer this month that Erdogan “thinks he’s the new sultan. In his heart he thinks he’s a Caliph.”

    The new mosque, however, will be modest in comparison with others in the Middle East, such as the 600,000-capacity Prophet’s Mosque or the world’s largest, the Al-Masjid al-Haram, or Grand Mosque, in Mecca.

    “Any other mosque might be bigger in size, physically and architecturally, but it cannot compare to the two holy mosques due to their sanctity and status,” a Saudi cleric, who declined to be named, told Reuters.

    Nor does it compare in scale with Erdogan’s other plans for Istanbul, which include digging a 45-km (30 mile) channel linking the Black Sea to the Sea of Marmara to ease congestion in the Bosphorus Strait and filling in part of the sea to create an assembly ground big enough for 800,000 people.

    He hopes, too, to bequeath Turkey a new constitution, replacing the version written after a 1980 military coup and in the process creating a powerful executive presidency.

    Barred from running for prime minister again, Erdogan is widely expected to bid for the new presidency in 2014, cementing his status as Turkey’s most significant leader since Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, who founded the secular republic from the World War One ruins of the Ottoman Empire.

    “Ottoman sultans adorned the hills of historic Istanbul with mosques dedicated to their victories, creating a lasting legacy,” said Soner Cagaptay, director of the Turkish research program at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.

    “By building a neo-Ottoman style mosque that shall dominate all other Istanbul landmarks, Erdogan is telling the world he has taken over Turkey.”

    (Additional reporting by Seltem Iyigun in Istanbul and Asma Alsharif in Jeddah; Writing by Matt Robinson; Editing by Nick Tattersall and Ralph Boulton)

  • In Istanbul, a mosque fit for a sultan

    In Istanbul, a mosque fit for a sultan

    By Matt Robinson and Ece Toksabay

    s1.reutersmedia.net 2

    ISTANBUL | Thu Nov 29, 2012 6:43am EST

    (Reuters) – Tayyip Erdogan has described his third term as Turkish prime minister as that of a “master”, borrowing from the celebrated Ottoman architect Sinan and the last stage of his storied career after apprenticeship and graduation.

    It’s a lofty allusion.

    Sinan’s 16th-century creations came to define the Ottoman Empire at its apogee, the Suleymaniye Mosque, built for Sultan Suleiman, part of Istanbul’s unmistakable skyline.

    Now, entering a second decade at the helm of a country revelling in its regional might, Erdogan wants to leave his own mark on the cityscape with what will be Turkey’s biggest mosque, a “giant mosque,” he says, “that will be visible from all across Istanbul.”

    To be built on the highest hill on the Asian side of the Bosphorus, planners boast the structure will hold up to 30,000 worshippers and bear six minarets taller than those of the Al-Masjid al-Nabawi, or the Prophet’s Mosque, in Medina.

    It is symbolic of Turkey’s tilt to the east under Erdogan, who has chipped away at the founding secularism of the modern republic and presided over its emergence as a power in the Middle East.

    But the Istanbul elite are up in arms.

    Some have branded the proposed mosque unsightly and ostentatious, a thinly-disguised declaration of victory by Erdogan’s Islamist-rooted government over the secularists and their guardians in the military.

    “On the European side, Sultan Suleiman put his mark on the city with the Suleymaniye Mosque, which could be seen everywhere from old Istanbul,” said Emre Kizilkaya, a blogger and foreign editor at the Hurriyet daily. “Now many think Erdogan wants to put his own mark on the Asian side.”

    Picked in mid-November in a hasty competition limited to Turkish architects, the winning design bears a striking resemblance to Istanbul’s iconic 400-year-old Sultanahmet Mosque, or Blue Mosque, built by a student of Sinan.

    One religiously conservative intellectual called it a “cheap replica” and wrote to Erdogan imploring him not to embarrass coming generations with such “unsightly work.”

    “There’s a saying in Turkish – ‘You don’t discover America again,’” said Oguz Oztuzcu, chairman of the Istanbul Independent Architects’ Association. “You don’t try to make another Sydney Opera House, do you? They’re competing with existing icons.”

    Even the country’s culture minister is unconvinced.

    “It’s not success in today’s world to build gigantic structures. It was success during the era of Sinan. Now it’s just about how much cement you’re using,” said Ertugrul Gunay, a rare dissenting government voice.

    “We should build something like a gem, and it should shine with its beauty, not with its gigantic size.”

    EMBRACING IMPERIAL PAST

    The mosque will sit atop Camlica Hill, once a hunting ground for the Ottoman well-to-do and now a popular viewing point, where couples sip sweet tea among rose bushes and take pictures with their cell phones of this city of over 14 million people.

    Minarets puncture the skyline of European Istanbul.

    Backers of the new mosque say they want to create a similar skyline on the Asian side, and do away with the antennas that now blight the hilltop.

    Ergin Kulunk, president of the Islamic association overseeing the project, said the Asian side lacked a mosque of such a size to cater to the needs of worshippers.

    “It’s a necessity,” he said, and dismissed the storm of criticism over the design, the work of two headscarved female architects.

    “We wanted a classical mosque with a dome, and if you’re going to build a classical mosque with a dome, it’s inevitable it will resemble Hagia Sophia, Selimiye Mosque or the Blue Mosque,” he said.

    Officially, the government did not instigate the project, but it has given the land and Erdogan’s personal endorsement. The cost is estimated at over 100 million lira, or 43 million euros, to be paid for by donors – code, the opposition says, for businessmen out to curry favour with the government.

    The Istanbul Islamic authority, seated near the bustling Grand Bazaar, professed to have little knowledge of the project, but had no complaints. Istanbul has over 3,000 mosques.

    Taking its support from the socially conservative Anatolian heartland, Erdogan’s ruling AK Party has all but won the battle with the old secular elite that emerged with the founding of the modern republic in 1923.

    It has muzzled the military, upholder of secularism, that had ousted four governments since 1960. Reforms in the military and the judiciary were promoted as complying with change demanded for entry to the European Union EU.L.

    With Turkey’s bid to join the EU, however, going nowhere, Erdogan is courting old Ottoman lands in the Middle East.

    Economic growth, outstripping Europe, is driven increasingly by trade with the Gulf. Arab businessmen and tourists are flocking to Turkey – up sixfold from Saudi Arabia, 500 percent from Qatar and 400 percent from Kuwait since October 2010.

    The government, meanwhile, is embracing Istanbul’s imperial past, when the Ottoman Empire sprawled across three continents.

    “We must go everywhere our ancestors have been,” Erdogan said on Sunday, and took aim at the makers of a hit Turkish television series, one of the country’s most famous exports, for its gaudy portrayal of Sultan Suleiman.

    “Those who toy with these values should be taught a lesson within the bounds of the law,” he said.

    GRAND DESIGNS

    Such talk has drawn fire from critics who accuse Erdogan of behaving like a modern-day sultan, at home and abroad. Hundreds of military officers have been jailed on charges of plotting a coup against Erdogan; others including academics, journalists and politicians are facing trial on similar accusations.

    Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, smarting from Turkey’s support for the rebels trying to oust him, told a television interviewer this month that Erdogan “thinks he’s the new sultan. In his heart he thinks he’s a Caliph.”

    The new mosque, however, will be modest in comparison with others in the Middle East, such as the 600,000-capacity Prophet’s Mosque or the world’s largest, the Al-Masjid al-Haram, or Grand Mosque, in Mecca.

    “Any other mosque might be bigger in size, physically and architecturally, but it cannot compare to the two holy mosques due to their sanctity and status,” a Saudi cleric, who declined to be named, told Reuters.

    Nor does it compare in scale with Erdogan’s other plans for Istanbul, which include digging a 45-km (30 mile) channel linking the Black Sea to the Sea of Marmara to ease congestion in the Bosphorus Strait and filling in part of the sea to create an assembly ground big enough for 800,000 people.

    He hopes, too, to bequeath Turkey a new constitution, replacing the version written after a 1980 military coup and in the process creating a powerful executive presidency.

    Barred from running for prime minister again, Erdogan is widely expected to bid for the new presidency in 2014, cementing his status as Turkey’s most significant leader since Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, who founded the secular republic from the World War One ruins of the Ottoman Empire.

    “Ottoman sultans adorned the hills of historic Istanbul with mosques dedicated to their victories, creating a lasting legacy,” said Soner Cagaptay, director of the Turkish research program at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.

    “By building a neo-Ottoman style mosque that shall dominate all other Istanbul landmarks, Erdogan is telling the world he has taken over Turkey.” (Additional reporting by Seltem Iyigun in Istanbul and Asma Alsharif in Jeddah; Writing by Matt Robinson; Editing by Nick Tattersall and Ralph Boulton)