Directorate for Religious Affairs

A mosque in the Albanian capital, Tirana, that will be one of the largest in the Balkans is continuing on schedule, according to an engineer working on the project.

Turkey on April 24 hosted world leaders to commemorate the centenary of the World War I battle of Gallipoli, sending out a message of reconciliation -- and patriotic pride over one of the most dramatic Ottoman victories of the war.
 

Funerals were held on Nov. 19 for eight miners who died in a mine disaster in the Southern Anatolian town of Ermenek, with Turkey’s top religious official calling on employers to provide work safety for all their workers.

Turkey’s top cleric has said Islamophobia will be high on the agenda of his upcoming meeting with Pope Francis during the latter’s landmark visit to Turkey in late November.

U.S. Vice President Joe Biden will have talks in Turkey on Nov. 21 as part of his trip including Morocco and Ukraine, according to diplomatic sources.

The vice president will meet with President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu and a number of nongovernmental representatives.

Drawing attention to steadily rising attacks against mosques in Germany, Turkey’s top cleric has said the Pope must “translate words into deeds with regard to the misperception and misinterpretation of Islam.”

The jihadist militants who have been committing atrocities in the name of Islam cannot belong to the faith, Turkey’s top cleric has declared, while also voicing his desire to visit the Gaza Strip together with religious scholars when conditions permit.