Thousands of protesters gathered in the area around Hagia Sophia in Constantinople to protest the assassination of Ismail Haniya and demonstrate against Israel, responding to the call of pro-Palestinian organizations.

With the slogan “#lastcall”, the organizers of the rally issued an invitation to citizens in recent days through TV spots and messages on the Internet and social networks, citing a message from Ismail Haniya, a few days before his assassination, to organize demonstrations against Israel around the world.

The protesters gathered in its square Saint Sofia’s, the former Byzantine Hippodrome, following an appeal by the “Palestine Support Platform”, they held Turkish and Palestinian flags, photos of Haniya, the green flag of Islam and shouted slogans such as “Free Palestine from the river to the sea”, “Murderers of US out of Palestine’, ‘Murderer Israel out of Palestine’, ‘Sacrifice our blood and life for Al-Aqsa’, ‘Hail Hamas, keep up the resistance’. The rally was preceded by marches from the surrounding areas to the Hagia Sophia square by Islamist organizations.

Among the participants in the rally was the president’s daughter Recep Tayyip ErdoganSoumeyeh, her husband Selcuk Bayraktar and his son Bilal, who stated: “We are in Hagia Sophia following the last call of our martyr […] Palestine is the cause of the Muslims. But Palestine is also our country’s cause, because we brought peace to Palestine to be the standard bearer of Islam for hundreds of years, so free Palestine is the heritage of the ancestors of this nation. This nation has always stood up for its cause Palestine and will continue to do so.” He also accused the United States of surrendering to Israel because political funding in the US is done by the Israel lobby.

Similar marches in favor of the Palestinians and against Israel were also organized in the cities of Agri, Caesarea, Kocaeli, Nigdi, Iconium, Bursa, Adana and Zonguldak.