Constantinople

Turkish Environment Minister ?dris Güllüce said the clause that would legalize already-constructed buildings, including a group of skyscrapers that have ruined the iconic panorama of Istanbul?s historic center and the controversial presidential palace in Ankara, by awarding them ?vested rights? status was removed from the omnibus bill.

An Istanbul prosecutor has demanded 13 life sentences in addition to 362 years in jail for four suspects, one of whom is on the run, in the case of a boat accident that took the lives of 27 migrants late last year.

Serkan Uyar, Do?an Odac?o?lu and Kerem Sinayi Çakan are under arrest in the case, while Afghan national Murteza Hashimi is still on the run.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdo?an pledged his support to the preservation of historical artifacts on Jan. 12, vowing to closely follow their restoration and revival both at home and abroad.

The president's remarks came during an opening ceremony for the newly-restored sections of the Topkap? Palace Museum in Istanbul.

An Istanbul district municipality responsible for the area that includes the historic Grand Bazaar wants a say in the management of the market, which has been controlled by its craftsmen for around 555 years, as part of a renewal plan, daily Cumhuriyet has reported.

The Council of Europe has hailed Turkey?s decision to allow the building of a new church for the Syriac community in Istanbul, which will be the first new church to be built in the country in nearly a century.

‘Midnight at the Pera Palace: The Birth of Modern Istanbul' by Charles King (W.W. Norton, 476 pages, $28)

Turkish police has behaved softly to demonstrators when compared to the U.S. colleagues' President Erdoğan says

ISTANBUL

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If the Eastern Orthodox Churches had not split from the Roman Catholic Church in 1054, the Ottoman Turks would have found it much more difficult to conquer Constantinople The break between the Eastern Orthodox Churches and the Roman Catholic Church is dated to 1054, although some believe the circumstances that led up to the rupture started nearly 900 years earlier.

Pope Francis has started the second leg of his three-day visit to Turkey, in a richly-symbolic trip. Like his predecessor, he prayed at the Blue Mosque, which was his first stop in Istanbul, before visiting the Hagia Sophia, the St. Esprit Cathedral and the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate on Nov. 29.

Pope Francis has arrived in Istanbul for the second leg of his three-day visit to Turkey, in a richly-symbolic trip set to include tours of a mosque and the Hagia Sophia, as well as a meeting with the Orthodox patriarch.