Erdogan inaugurates landmark mosque on main Istanbul square

Istanbul: Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan inaugurated a landmark new mosque on Istanbul’s Taksim Square on Friday, fulfilling a long-time dream to build a Muslim house of worship in the city’s main public space that has become a symbol of the modern Turkish Republic.

Erdogan joined dozens of mask-wearing worshippers for the first prayers at the towering 3,000-capacity mosque on Taksim. Hundreds of others performed their prayers outside the mosque. "Taksim Mosque was brought to our Istanbul following a nearly one-and-a-half century struggle,” Erdogan said in a speech following the Friday prayers, insisting that plans for the mosque date back to a Russian-Turkish war between 1877-1878.