Turkey to reopen iconic 'Iron Church' after revamp

The leaders of Turkey and Bulgaria are Sunday due to reopen the Bulgarian St Stephen's Church in Istanbul after seven years of restoration, in a gesture of harmony in an often turbulent relationship between the two neighbours. The Bulgarian Orthodox church in Balat, a historic Istanbul neighbourhood on the shores of the Golden Horn traditionally home to Christians and Jews, was built in 1898 after its original wooden structure was destroyed in a fire. For President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who hosts Bulgaria's conservative Prime Minister Boyko Borisov, the ceremony will be a riposte to charges that Turkey's Islamic-rooted government does not do enough to protect the rights of Christian minorities and their heritage.

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