Every year on May 29, Turkish people celebrate the Fall of Constantinople in 1453 AD with glamorous festivities. Now, they discuss declaring this day a National Day for Turkey.
The French newspaper Le Monde, wrote the article “Fall of Constantinople to become a national day?” The paper reports that Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan inaugurated a couple of days ago, occasioned by the corresponding celebrations, the renovation of Fatih Mosque, built after the fall of Constantinople in 1453 to disgrace the Orthodox Church of Hagia Sophia. The Mosque was named after Fatih Sultan Mehmed, the Ottoman sultan who captured Constantinople.
The French newspaper says that the mayor of Istanbul Kadir Topbas attended the spectacular celebrations March 29 in downtown Istanbul. Le Monde adds that the football court of Besiktas was used as a site, where the Youth Union of East – an Islamic non-governmental organization – organized a huge march.
The same Union organized a mass prayer of 1,000 people in front of Hagia Sophia, a former Orthodox Church turned into a mosque and later into a museum in 1934. “We are kids of Sultan Mohammed. Keeping Hagia Sophia a site, where prayer is forbidden, is an offense for Muslims of this country,” Head of the Union Salih Turhan told the paper.
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