Speaking at the inauguration ceremony, Erdoğan said: “Taksim Mosque was brought in our Istanbul after a 1.5-century-long struggle. I see Taksim Mosque as a salute to Hagia Sophia Mosque, which we opened to worship a while ago, as a gift to the 568th anniversary of the conquest of Istanbul.”

Taksim Square Mosque was designed by two Turkish architects in the art deco style, and the triple-story mosque can hold up to 2,250 worshippers at the same time. Construction started on Feb. 17, 2017, and lasted for four years.

Excluding the minarets, the mosque’s height is approximately 30 meters, the same as the two historical churches in the vicinity. The mosque complex includes a conference and exhibition hall and an underground parking garage.

The plan for a mosque in Taksim Square has been in the making since 1952. The “Taksim Mosque Building and Sustenance Association” was founded with the aim to construct a mosque in Taksim Square, but was closed after the 1980 military coup in Turkey. The Council of State stopped the Taksim Mosque project in 1983 on the grounds that it was “not in the public interest”.

The Taksim Mosque remained on the agenda in the governments of Turgut Özal in the 1980s and Necmettin Erbakan in 1996. The project has always been scrutinized by the media and has encountered legal obstacles. A court had previously objected to the construction of the mosque as it decided it would be against the public interest.

In January 2017, the mosque was approved by the Cultural Monuments Preservation Board, which oversees the construction of protected, historic sites, thereby removing the last obstacle to the construction of the mosque.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan defended the cause since becoming Istanbul’s mayor in 1994. The land on which the mosque was built is currently owned by the Directorate General of Foundations. (ILKHA)