DHAKA: Turkey’s Islamic-rooted government has authorised the building of the first church in the country since the end of the Ottoman empire in 1923, media has learned.

The church is for the country’s tiny Syriac community and will be built in the Istanbul suburb of Yesilkoy on the shores of the Sea of Marmara, which already has Greek Orthodox, Armenian and Catholic churches.

‘It is the first since the creation of the republic,’ a government source told the media Saturday, reports The Straits Times.

‘Churches have been restored and reopened to the public, but no new church has been built until now,’ he added.

BDST: 2116 HRS, JAN 03, 2015