09 November 2017•Update: 09 November 2017
By Ahmet Akbiyik
JERUSALEM/KONYA
A group of people from Turkey's central Anatolian province of Konya have paid a visit to Jerusalem to help renovate several Ottoman-era artefacts.
A total of 110 people arrived at the site as part of a project organized by the Meram District Municipality of the Turkish city of Konya.
"As part of the project, our teams started to clean about 60 Ottoman works inside and out. Also, the city's streets have been cleaned," Fatma Toru, district mayor of Meram, told reporters on Thursday.
Toru said they organized the visit after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan urged Muslims worldwide to visit the site and show their support for Jerusalem’s Palestinian Muslims.
"Those who are able to should visit Al-Aqsa. Those who cannot visit Al-Aqsa should send aid to our brothers there," Erdogan said.
In July, anger spilled across the Israeli-occupied West Bank when Israel shut the Al-Aqsa Mosque, which is venerated by Muslims and Jews, following a deadly shootout.
Israel occupied the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, during the 1967 Arab-Israeli War. It annexed the entire city in 1980 claiming it as the Jewish state’s “undivided and eternal capital” -- a move never recognized by the international community.
International law views the West Bank and East Jerusalem as "occupied territories" and considers all Jewish settlement construction there as illegal.
