The Grand Mufti Dr. Mustfa Hadzhi was in the Bulgarian delegation for the opening of the Iron Church in Istanbul

The Grand Mufti of Bulgaria Dr. Mustafa Hadzhi was a part of the Bulgarian delegation which in the early morning of January 7, this year, departure with the governmental plane from Sofia to Istanbul. Exactly there, on the shore of the Golden Horn, the boundary between the Bosphorus and the Sea of Marmara, later on Sunday took place the official solemn reopening of the restored Bulgarian Iron Church “St. Stefan”. The Mufti of Bulgaria was accompanied by the Secretary General of Grand Mufti’s Office Dzhelal Faik.

In the delegation which arrived from Bulgaria to Istanbul especially for the event were the Prime Minister Boyko Borisov, the Bulgarian Patriarch and Metropolitan of Sofia Neophyte, the Minister of Foreign Affairs Ekaterina Zaharieva, the Mister of Culture Boil Banov, the Minister of Economy Emil Karanikolov, the Agricultural Minister Rumen Porazhanov, Vezhdi Rashidov – Chairman of the Committee on Culture in the National Assembly and other MPs and representatives of Bulgarian institutions.

From the Turkish side among the official guests of the opening of the Bulgarian temple in Istanbul were the President of Turkey Recep Erdoğan and the Prime Minster of Turkey Binali Yıldırım. And the total amount of all guests exceeded 1000.

“Indeed this is a great day, but also a very good investment for the future. To show whole of Europe, the Christian world, that the relations with our biggest neighbor can be improved. However small we are, we will try to contribute to this understanding”, said the Prime Minister Borisov.

Borisov and Yıldırım described as awonderful the occasion which brought together in Istanbul representatives of the Bulgarian and the Turkish states, Christians and Muslims.

“If in the past there were wars for the Bosphorus, now Istanbul as well as Sofia are cities that are symbols of unity of cultures and religions” – they commented before the opening of “St. Stefan”.

After the ceremony for the official opening of the Bulgarian temple the Prime Minister Boyko Borisov had a conversation with the Turkish President Erdoğan. They both highly appreciated the positive dynamics between Bulgaria and Turkey. Borisov thanked Erdoğan for his personal commitment and for the efforts of the Turkish country for the restoration of the Iron Church. He said that this event is not just a proof for the cooperation between our countries and for the tolerance between the religions, but also an example that understanding and peace are the way to make progress in everything.

The Bulgarian Iron Church “St. Stefan” at the Golden Horn in Istanbul was reopened on January 7, 2018 after a long repair for its restoration. The reconstruction was funded mainly by the Turkish state – the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality and the Fatih Municipality, and partly by Bulgaria, and it costs 2.5 million euros.

The temple is an important symbol of the history of the Bulgarian Orthodox community in Istanbul. The Iron Church has a different from the typical for the orthodox temples in Bulgaria architecture. Its architectural design was done by the Armenian Hovsep Aznavur, and the elements in the nearly 500 tonnes construction were produced in Austro-Hungary.

Author: L. Chausheva

Photos are from FB page of Boyko Borisov