Turkey: Building Mosques, Erasing Christianity by Uzay Bulut  •  October 2, 2018 at 5:00 am         While Turkey's latest mosque is being inaugurated in Germany, the greatest Christian Orthodox theological school has remained closed for almost 50 years by the order of the Turkish government. Moreover, less than a kilometer away from the shuttered Christian seminary, a major new center of Islamic studies spanning a total area of 200 acres is scheduled to be built. The Greeks of Turkey -- the remnants of the once great Byzantine Empire -- are a severely persecuted and even almost completely exterminated people. They have been exposed, among other crimes against humanity, to a genocide, pogroms and forced deportations at the hands of multiple Turkish governments. As a result, there are only around 1,300 Greeks left in Istanbul. But in spite of its tiny size, the dying Greek community still suffers from discrimination and violations of its rights. The Turkish government, which keeps the country's greatest Christian theological school closed, is spending a large portion of its annual budget on the worldwide construction of mosques. On September 29, Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan inaugurated the Turkish government's latest European mosque, "The Cologne Central Mosque," located in the Cologne, Germany. (Photo by Carsten Koall/Getty Images) The Turkish government spends hundreds of millions of dollars building mosques as part of a long-term effort to promote Islam around the world. Many Muslims hope that new mosques throughout Europe will advance and facilitate their wish to spread Islam to non-Islamic countries and persuade the Christian "infidels" to abandon their faith in favor of Islam. On September 29, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan inaugurated Turkey's latest European mosque, "The Cologne Central Mosque," located in the Cologne, Germany. The Turkish government-funded Anadolu Agency reported on September 25: The Cologne Central Mosque, built by Turkish-Islamic Union for Religious Affairs (DITIB) after eight years of construction work, has a capacity of 1,200 people. Continue Reading Article