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#Trump and Erdogan speak, but it’s unclear if Hagia Sophia mosque change was discussed

#Trump and Erdogan speak, but it’s unclear if Hagia Sophia mosque change was discussed

July 14, 2020 | 3:54pm | Updated July 14, 2020 | 4:15pm

President Trump and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan spoke on the phone Tuesday after Erdogan sparked global outrage by converting the 1,500-year-old Hagia Sophia into a mosque.

It’s unclear if Trump and Erdogan discussed the historic Byzantine building in Istanbul. Readouts from the White House and Turkey’s government do not mention the controversy.

According to the White House, the men discussed “positive trade issues” and “underscored our belief in the need for a negotiated settlement of regional issues.”

Turkey’s government said the leaders spoke about the Libyan civil war, in which Turkey backs the more religiously conservative faction, and an ambition to conduct $100 billion in trade.

A White House spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment on whether the Hagia Sophia was mentioned.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo this month urged Erdogan to reconsider his plan to change the building’s status. Trump’s Democratic presidential challenger, Joe Biden, said Friday that Erdogan should “reverse his decision.”

The building was a Christian church for nearly a millennium and still has mosaics of Jesus and the Virgin Mary. When Turks conquered the city in 1453, it became a mosque.

Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the secularist founder of modern Turkey, made the building a museum in 1935.

Trump and Erdogan have had a rocky relationship. Trump ordered sanctions against Turkey in 2018 in a successful effort to free detained US pastor Andrew Brunson. In a November letter, Trump told Erdogan not to be a “tough guy” or “fool” by attacking US-allied Kurds in Syria. Erdogan ignored him and launched an invasion.

And Trump has refused Erdogan’s request to deport from the US the exiled Turkish cleric Fethullah Gulen, who Erodgan claims was behind a 2016 coup attempt.

Nevertheless, Erdogan, an elected Islamist known for jailing dissidents, has twice visited Trump at the White House. After his first visit in 2017, Erdogan appeared to relay a command and then watched as his security detail attacked US citizens protesting against him in Washington, DC. Some of his guards were criminally charged but were allowed to leave the US.

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