Turkey marks 566th anniversary of conquest of Istanbul

ANKARA Turkey's presidential communications director commemorated the 566th anniversary of the conquest of Istanbul with a post on social media Wednesday. “We shout out! We say persistently to those who cannot stand Istanbul to become an Islamic city, to those who set an eye on these sacred lands, to those colonized minds which say ‘the persecution began in 1453’ that may the 566th anniversary of the conquest of Istanbul be blessed,” Fahrettin Altun wrote on Twitter. He also hailed Ottoman Sultan Mehmet II -- who conquered Istanbul on May 29, 1453 -- and his army. Sultan Mehmet II conquered the city from where the Byzantines ruled the Eastern Roman Empire for more than 1,000 years. The conquest transformed the city, once the heart of the Byzantine realm, into the capital of the new Ottoman Empire.