The mayor of İstanbul’s Bakırköy district on Wednesday issued a building permit to the leaders of a Christian minority in the city for a new church, the first in the city since the establishment of modern Turkey in 1923.
Bakırköy Mayor Bülent Kerimoğlu told reporters that the permits have been issued and that the project will be completed in two years after a meeting with the Syriac Orthodox Church’s Metropolitan in İstanbul Yusuf Çetin. The mayor said in Bakırköy alone there are 18,000 Syriac Christians who have to worship in the churches of other congregations.
The new church, which is expected to accommodate 700 worshippers, will be built in Yeşilköy.