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Greece Tag

Less than a month after converting the Hagia Sophia cathedral into a mosque, Turkey is moving ahead with its campaign to erase the country's Christian past. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Friday ordered the conversion of Istanbul’s Church of the Holy Savior in Chora, or Kariye, to a Muslim place of worship. 

Church bells across Greece tolled in mourning on Friday as neighboring Turkey held its first Islamic prayer marking the conversion of Hagia Sophia cathedral into a mosque, Greek newspapers reported. Hagia Sophia, the first cathedral of the Eastern Roman Empire, is particularly sacred to Christian Orthodox believers, represented largely by the Greek Church. 

Police in Greece fought back on Saturday to repel thousands of illegal immigrants along the Turkish border. The push back comes as tens of thousands of migrants are beginning to amass along the Turkish-Greek border. Angry migrants pelted stones at Greek guards and attempted to cut through border fences, news reports said. The Greek police fired tear gas in response.

Greece is increasing border patrols and speeding up deportations to combat the rising tide of illegal immigrants coming in from Turkey, country's center-right government said on Saturday. The measures were announced after a group of more than 500 Afghan and Syrian migrants landed on the Greek island of Lesbos earlier this week.