Important Cultural-Political Event for Turkey with the Opening of the ‘Mor Afrem’ Church

The opening of the ‘Mor Afrem’ church brought a cultural-political event to Turkey.

Turkish President “Recep Tayyip Erdoğan” laid the cornerstone of the ‘Mor Afrem’ church in 2019 for approximately 17,000 Orthodox Christians, and the construction of this church was completed in late September of the current year (2023). This church was opened on October 9 in Istanbul as the first Assyrian Orthodox church of “Ephrem the Syrian” to be built in Turkey since the establishment of the Turkish Republic. Seid Sosin, head of the Assyrian Foundation of Istanbul, expressed satisfaction with the formal opening of this church and said: “We feel happy about this and it is a source of great pride for us.”

The opening of the ‘Mor Afrem’ church had extensive repercussions among Christian communities, with many countries responding to it. French news agency “AFP” responded to this news by writing: “Erdoğan opened a church in Istanbul for the first time in the 100-year history of his republic.”

Also, the German radio network “Deutsche Welle” published the news of the opening of the mentioned church under the title “Erdoğan Opens the First Official Church in the History of the Republic” on its website. In addition, Greece’s state channel “ERT” also published the news of the opening of the Mor Afrem Syriac Orthodox Church on its website and emphasized that the opening of the Mor Afrem church is considered an important cultural and political moment for Turkey.

Erdoğan also announced in his speech: “We are happy that Jews, Christians, and all communities of Turkey live side by side with one another.”