Aqsa Mosque

Turkey's Directorate of Religious Affairs (Diyanet) will host an international meeting in Istanbul focusing on Jerusalem and its iconic Al-Aqsa Mosque, the authority announced on Jan. 27.       

Locals in the Black Sea province of Trabzon were outraged after seeing a Portuguese tourist leaning against a model of al-Aqsa Mosque, placed recently in the city during protests against U.S.’s decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.

Foreign ministers from Islamic countries will meet in Istanbul on August 1st to discuss the situation at Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem, the Foreign Ministry announced on Friday, quoted by Daily Sabah.

Members of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) will hold an extraordinary meeting following a call from Ankara.

Violence broke out in and around Jerusalem's Al-Aqsa mosque Thursday, with Israeli police using tear gas, rubber bullets and stun grenades to dispel stone-throwing demonstrators who had entered the compound, according to NBC News.

Opposition Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) leader Devlet Bahçeli has condemned recent attacks on synagogues in Turkey protesting Israel's recent moves to prevent Palestinians from accessing the holy al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem, stating that any restrictions to the freedom of conscience of Jews in Turkey "is not approvable."

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said on July 24 that Israel is headed towards isolation because of measures imposed at the al-Aqsa compound in East Jerusalem.

"Equating the Muslims who come for worship with terrorists is a great eclipse of reason," Erdoğan said at a news conference at the Esenboğa Airport after returning from a two-day visit to the Gulf region.

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan harshly slammed the attack on the Neve Shalom synagogue by an ultra-nationalist group. The group had claimed the protest was a response to the restrictions on the al-Aqsa mosque.

The Turkish and Egyptian foreign ministers spoke on the phone on July 23 on the recent tension over Israeli restrictions around Al-Aqsa Mosque, according to diplomatic sources.      
  

Turkey's President Erdoğan on July 22 called for an immediate end to Israel's new restrictions at the compound of Jerusalem's Al-Aqsa Mosque. 

"Metal detectors and other restrictions should be immediately lifted and returned to the status quo. Everyone should be guard against provocations at this sensitive time," Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said in a written statement. 

A group gathered and demonstrated in front of the Neve Shalom synagogue in Istanbul's Beyoğlu district late on July 20 to protest the Israeli government's recent move to place metal detectors at the entrance to al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem. 

If it had remained as a peaceful protest, you may have said it was the wrong address but was still legal.