IYI Party leader AKSENER: “I prayed for Atatürk in Hagia Sophia for having liberated it”

Meral AKSENER, chairwoman of GOOD (IYI) Party visited the Hagia Sophia Mosque. She emphasized that she had sent her prayer to Atatürk. AKSENER who was unable to be present at the first prayer on July 24, because she was in quarantine due to the corona virus in a policeman in his protection team, prayed at the mosque where she went with her husband Tuncer Akşener, his son Fatih Akşener and his nephew Banu Gürer.

Akşener, who stayed inside for about half an hour, said they had performed the Masjid prayer and added, “May Allah accept it. We prayed for Alparslan Khan who opened the doors of Anatolia, to Fatih Sultan Mehmet Khan who conquered Istanbul and to Gazi Mustafa Kemal Atatürk and his friends who liberated Istanbul and Hagia Sophia. I hope God accepts it.”

Ali Erbaş, the head of religious affairs had attracted negative reaction from CHP leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu and Akşener as well as civil society organizations and citizens on grounds he had used expressions in the first Friday sermon at Hagia Sophia on 24 July, allegedly cursing ATATURK, the founder of Turkey and one of the great leaders ever, for having turned Hagia Sophia into a museum many years ago.