"Erdogan lauds tolerance as 'Garden of Religions' opens in Turkey 08/12/2004
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan pledged Wednesday that his government would remove any remaining obstacles to religious freedoms in Turkey as he opened a complex of Muslim, Christian and Jewish worship sites. The 'Garden of Religions' in the Mediterranean resort of Belek, which contains a mosque, a church and a synagogue, was inaugurated to underscore inter-cultural tolerance at a time when Turkey is under fire from the EU for failing to fully respect the rights of its non-Muslim minorities. Speaking at the ceremony, Erdogan said that religious tolerance was a heritage of the Ottoman Empire and quoted edicts by Mehmet the Conqueror, the sultan who took Istanbul in 1453, ordering respect for non-Muslims. "
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