Turkey reopened restaurants, cafes, and parks on Monday, as well as lifting inter-city travel curbs as the country eased restrictions taken to fight the coronavirus outbreak.President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s government has been gradually easing the restrictions for the past few weeks, as authorities say the outbreak is now under control.
The coronavirus outbreak has claimed more than 4,500 lives in the country and infected more than 160,000.
Restaurants, cafes, gyms and swimming pools, beaches, parks, libraries, and museums were free to resume operations from Monday.
Daycare centers and kindergartens are also reopening, but restrictions on the movements of those aged over 65 and under 18 will continue.
Turkey has been shifting since May to a “new normal” by easing lockdown measures and opening shopping malls, barbershops and hair salons.
A limited number of mosques reopened on Friday for mass prayers.
The resumption of communal worship was regulated by strict guidelines to minimize infection risks, limited to certain mosques and outdoor public spaces, the religious affairs directorate (Diyanet) said.
Hagia Sophia protests
Clerics on Friday recited prayers in Hagia Sophia, the world famous Istanbul landmark which is now a museum after serving as a church and a mosque.
The prayers were held to celebrate the anniversary of the conquest of Constantinople, today’s Istanbul, by the Ottomans in 1453.
After the Ottoman conquest, it was converted into a mosque before being turned into a museum during the rule of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the founder of modern Turkey, in the 1930s.
But there have been hints, including from Erdogan, about reconverting Hagia Sophia into a mosque.
Last year, Erdogan himself mooted the possibility of turning Hagia Sofia museum into a mosque.
Such calls have sparked anger among Christians and raised tensions with neighboring Greece.
After Friday prayers at Istanbul’s Blue Mosque, a small group of worshippers shouted: “Let the chains break and let Hagia Sophia open,” an AFP photographer reported.
The group was later dispersed by the police who stopped them from protesting near Hagia Sophia that sits immediately opposite the Blue Mosque.
