“The Hagia Sophia was in a dramatic state and we turned it into a mosque, i.e. its current state,” Turkish President Recep Tayyip Ernogan said during his speech today, choosing defiant rhetoric a day before the self-governing elections in the country.

“When we go there we feel joy and happiness to see the final state of Hagia Sophia,” he added, as reported by Sky’s correspondent in Istanbul, Manolis Kostidis.

The “Hagia Sophia” is consistently a “strong card” that the Turkish President chooses to use in the public discourse, as the conversion of the emblematic Christian church into a mosque had been referred to again a few days earlier.

“We built the Hagia Sophia mosque. It was a dream of 80 years and now the call to prayer is being heard,” said the Turkish president in a pre-election speech ahead of Sunday’s municipal elections.

“Constantinople was conquered and the conqueror became one of the greatest rulers” he added.

In the same speech, Erdogan sang “the president is the apple of our eye, the sevdas is on the lips of the world” wanting to give a boost to his chosen one for the municipality of Istanbul, Murat Kurum.

Turkish media: Turkey did not do it, but the communists”

“American tanks blocked in Alexandroupolis – Alexandroupolis has been turned into an American base”

TV network A HABER: “In Greece, in Alexandroupoli, the Greek communists demonstrated against the USA and NATO. They blocked the train, climbed on top of the tank. These images are from Alexandroupolis, which in recent years has almost turned into an American base. Members of the Communist Party and its youth blocked a train carrying American military equipment to Bulgaria.”

HABER GLOBAL TV network: “In Greece, Leftist protesters blocked the passage of a train carrying American armored vehicles. Protesters wrote ‘murderers’ slogans and held Palestinian flags. The train failed to continue its course. They shouted slogans against NATO, and wrote slogans against NATO. A group of Communists organized a demonstration in Alexandroupoli targeting NATO. The team stopped the train that, through Bulgaria, was transporting American tanks to Ukraine.”