In the last ten years, Turkey has bombed Syria, Libya, and Iraq, and turned Hagia Sophia into a mosque.
88% confidence
Foreign AffairsTurkey
Omissions
The Hagia Sophia was originally a mosque for nearly 500 years (1453–1934) before being secularised as a museum; the 2020 act was therefore a reconversion, not a first-time conversion — the MEP does not mention this prior history.
Turkey's military operations in Syria were primarily framed as targeting ISIS and Kurdish YPG/PKK-linked groups rather than the Syrian state itself, though they occurred on Syrian sovereign territory.
Turkey's intervention in Libya was conducted primarily through drone strikes (Bayraktar TB2) and the deployment of Syrian mercenaries and military advisors, rather than traditional manned aerial bombing campaigns.
The MEP did not cite any sources for these claims.
Sources
SecondarySWP Berlin (German Institute for International and Security Affairs)In Syria, Turkey conducted three military operations (in 2016, 2018...) A fourth operation in 2020 in the Idlib region. These operations involved airstrikes and ground offensives into Syrian territory.
SecondaryForeign Policy Research Institute (FPRI)By late spring 2020, the Turkish-backed forces aligned with the Tripoli government had forced Haftar's main brigades out of northwestern Libya. Turkey's military intervention, approved by the Turkish parliament on 2 January 2020, involved drone strikes and military support to the Government of National Accord.
SecondaryAirwarsAirwars has documented hundreds of allegations of civilian harm by Turkish strikes against Kurdish-affiliated forces in Iraq and Syria since 2015.
SecondaryBBC NewsTurkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has ordered the conversion of Istanbul's Hagia Sophia from a museum into a mosque. The decree was signed on 10 July 2020, following a Turkish court ruling that annulled the 1934 museum status.
SecondaryCNNTurkey's Recep Tayyip Erdogan has ordered the conversion of Istanbul's famous Hagia Sophia into a mosque after a Turkish court annulled the 1934 decree that made it a museum.
SecondaryClingendael InstituteThe Turkish military intervention in Libya in 2019–2020 in favour of the Government of National Accord (GNA) involved the deployment of drones, air defence systems, and military personnel, with strategic geopolitical objectives.