Turkish President said that Turkey’s decision on the status of the Hagia Sophia is about the rights and the wishes of the Turkish nation.
“IT IS WHAT OUR NATION WANTS”
“We took this decision not by looking at who said what, but rather what our rights are and what our nation wants,” Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said in a video address on the opening of the country’s highest bridge, the Begendik Bridge, in the southeastern Siirt province.
Erdoğan said people who had done nothing “to prevent hostility towards Islam in their countries” were attacking “Turkey’s will to exercise its sovereign rights.”
The 450-meter-long and 165-meter-high Begendik Bridge over Botan Creek connects the Van-Tatvan-Bitlis and Siirt-Mardin-Batman regions of Turkey.
It will reduce the travel time from Van to Siirt’s Pervari district from five hours to two hours.