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Erdogan Seeks To Build Ottoman-Style Mosque In Cuba

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  • Erdogan Seeks To Build Ottoman-Style Mosque In Cuba

    ERDOGAN SEEKS TO BUILD OTTOMAN-STYLE MOSQUE IN CUBA

    Al-Akhbar English, Lebanon
    February 12, 2015 Thursday

    by Rana Harbi

    Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan unveiled his ambitious plan
    to build a major Ottoman-style mosque in Cuba, saying it should be
    similar to a nineteenth century one on the Bosphorus in Istanbul,
    the presidency said Thursday.

    Erdogan acknowledged after holding talks with Cuban President Raul
    Castro in Havana that Cuban officials had appeared to have already
    made an agreement with Saudi Arabia for the construction of a mosque
    in Havana.

    But Erdogan, who caused astonishment last year by claiming Muslims
    traveled to the Americas before Columbus, said Turkey was pressing
    for an Ottoman-style mosque in another city in Cuba.

    "We have told them that we could build a similar one to Ortakoy
    mosque in another city, if you have promised to others for Havana,"
    Erdogan said in the communist island, the second stop of his Latin
    America tour.

    The Ortakoy mosque, designed by the Balyan family of Armenian
    architects, was built in 1853 during the rule of the Ottoman sultan
    Abdulmecid I.

    The neo-Baroque edifice is a familiar sight on the shore near the
    Bosphorus Bridge.

    Erdogan said Turkey was not in search of a partner to build the mosque
    as "our architecture is different from that of Saudi Arabia."

    "I have provided the Cuban officials with all the necessary
    information.... so far they have not taken a negative approach to it,"
    he was quoted as saying by the presidential website.

    Erdogan, a pious Muslim who has been in power for more than a decade,
    stirred controversy late last year by declaring that the Americas
    were discovered by Muslims in the 12th century.

    Erdogan cited as evidence for his claim that "(Christopher) Columbus
    mentioned the existence of a mosque on a hill on the Cuban coast"
    when he traveled there in the late 15th century, and offered to build
    a mosque at the site mentioned by the Genoese explorer.

    The president has repeatedly been ridiculed by critics for harking
    back to Turkey's past to even before the Ottoman Empire was established
    in the fourteenth century.

    In late January, Erdogan brushed off criticism that he was trying to
    amass sultan-like power, saying he really just wants to be more like
    Britain's Queen Elizabeth II.

    "In my opinion, even the UK is a semi-presidency. And the dominant
    element is the Queen," Erdogan said. In fact, Queen Elizabeth only
    holds largely ceremonial and symbolic powers.

    Erdogan's comments came after fresh criticism from the opposition that
    he would act like an "Ottoman sultan" once his presidential role has
    been boosted.

    Erdogan also stirred fierce criticism last month when he said that
    Ottoman, an old form of Turkish using a version of Arabic script
    which was replaced by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk with the Latin alphabet
    on foundation of the secular Republic in 1923, should be taught
    in schools to prevent younger generations losing touch with their
    cultural heritage.

    Erdogan's supporters, who carried him to victory in Turkey's first
    popular presidential election in August with 52 percent of the vote,
    see him as a champion of the religiously conservative working classes,
    standing up to a secular elite.

    The Turkish president in October unveiled a new presidential palace
    - built at a reported cost of $350 million to $650 million - on the
    outskirts of Ankara, a move seen by many as a vivid symbol of what
    Erdogan touts as his drive towards a "new Turkey."

    The palace is the new home of the Turkish presidency, marking an
    historic break with the Cankaya presidential palace in downtown Ankara.

    The Cankaya has been the seat of the Turkish president ever since the
    modern republic's founder Ataturk became president and for many has
    been a symbol of Turkey's modern history as a progressive secular
    state. From Ataturk to Erdogan, it has been the home of 12 Turkish
    presidents.

    For the opposition, the new palace marks another betrayal by Erdogan
    of Turkey's secular heritage bequeathed by Ataturk who based the
    republic on a strict separation of religion and state.

    Furthermore, the palace has been built on land where Ataturk created
    a forest farm that was then donated to the state. Erdogan in March
    defied a court order halting the construction.

    Moreover, Erdogan has also drawn the ire of feminist groups on
    multiple occasions.

    Last month, the Turkish president, who co-founded the ruling
    Islamic-rooted Justice and Development Party (AKP), declared that
    women were not equal to men because of "biological differences" and
    launched a bitter attack against feminists in Turkey, claiming they
    reject the concept of motherhood.

    He has previously declared that every woman in Turkey should have at
    least three children and with proposed to limit abortion rights and
    access to the morning-after pill.

    In August, he drew mass criticism regarding his attitude towards
    the media and women when in a television debate he said to a woman
    journalist that she was a "shameless woman" and told her "to know
    [her] place."

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