The US President Donald Trump has expressed concern about Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s decision to turn Hagia Sophia into a mosque, the Athens News Agency AMNA reported.
Trump expressed his attitude to the situation around Hagia Sophia at a meeting with the head of the American Archdiocese of the Patriarchate of Constantinople, Metropolitan Elpidophoros, held in the White House. According to media reports, the US president “looked very annoyed” and was also concerned about protecting human rights and religious freedoms of minorities in Turkey.
“He (Trump – ed.) declared himself an assistant and supporter of the Ecumenical Patriarchate and personally Patriarch Bartholomew, as well as Hellenism, and stressed that he would immediately begin the necessary interventions”, – AMNA reports.
In turn, Archbishop Elpidophoros wrote on Twitter that he was grateful to the American President for the meeting and expressed deep sorrow over the transformation of the cathedral into a mosque. United States Vice President Mike Pence also tweeted that the United States will firmly side with the Greek Orthodox Church.