Istanbul’s heritage
Under attack
How mosques and other new buildings may damage one of Europe’s finest cities
Dec 1st 2012 | ISTANBUL | from the print edition
TURKEY’S first Islamist prime minister, Necmettin Erbakan, came to power in 1996 vowing to put a mosque in Istanbul’s main square. In the heart of the old European quarter, Taksim Square, with its monument of Ataturk and his revolutionaries, remains a symbol of the secular republic. Mr Erbakan was ousted a year later.
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