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Turkey's president to visit Moscow to join opening of mosque

The Turkish president will also have a meeting with Russia's President Vladimir Putin

MOSCOW, September 18. /TASS/. Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan will come to Moscow, and during the visit he will participate in opening of a mosque in Moscow due September 23, and will have a meeting with Russia’s President Vladimir Putin, the president’s Press Secretary Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Friday.

"In fact, Turkey’s president will participate in the opening ceremony of a mosque in Moscow and he will also have a meeting with the Russian president; they will have a bilateral discussion," the Kremlin’s representative said.

"We also expect, if President of the Palestinian Authority [Mahmoud] Abbas participates in opening of the mosque, Putin will have separate talks also with him," Peskov said, adding he was unaware if the Russian president would participate in opening of the mosque.

The mosque in Moscow was built back in 1904. It is the biggest mosque in Europe. A large reconstruction of the mosque began in May, 2005. Over ten years, about $170 has been spent on the reconstruction, deputy head of the Russian Council of Muftis Rushan Abbyasov said. The new building, he said, would have six levels, and the area would be by 20 times more than the old mosque had - up to 19,000 square meters. Now, the mosque will be able to host not 500, but 10,000 people at a time.

In an interview with TASS, head of the Council of Russian Muftis Ravil Gainutdin said on Friday two more mosques will be built in Moscow, where one of them will be twice bigger than the reconstructed old mosque, and it will host up to 20,000 at a time.