Erdogan targets actress who opposed mosque in İstanbul’s historic fortress, hints at Vatican plot.

Erdogan targets actress who opposed mosque in İstanbul’s historic fortress, hints at Vatican plot. (TZ).

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on Thursday lambasted an actress who called for artists to join forces to prevent construction of a masjid inside the historic Rumelihisarı fortress along the shores of the Bosporus.

“Someone claimed to be an artist comes out at an award ceremony and says ‘we will not let a masjid be built here.' Who are you expelling from whose land? It is already a place of worship,” Erdoğan said in a speech at a ceremony in Ankara marking the inauguration of a series of projects undertaken by the Turkish Cooperation and Development Agency (TİKA).

The artist Erdoğan targeted in his speech was actress Defne Halman, who called on Turkey's artists to unite forces to oppose the planned mosque which will be built on an amphitheater inside Rumelihisarı, which has been used as a concert venue for decades.

Erdoğan defended the masjid construction, praising those who undertook the project. “Those who fail to honor their past can have no future. No one will be able to prevent this,” Erdoğan said.

Apparently referring to the opposition pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP), which has pledged to abolish Turkey's Religious Affairs Directorate, the president added, “Those who attack the Diyanet [Religious Affairs Directorate] and remain silent in the face of the Vatican's activities to the detriment of our country will not be able to prevent it either.” Hmmmm....Cause with 17,000 new Mosques you are bound to be short of mosques? Read the full story here.