By Emin Ileri and Mehmet Kara</p> <p>ISTANBUL (AA) – Accompanied by Turkish officials, Greece’s premier on Wednesday paid a historic visit to a former Greek seminary on Istanbul’s Princes’ Islands.</p> <p>On day two of his official visit to Turkey, Alexis Tsipras visited the site of the Halki Seminary on Heybeliada island — the first visit by a Greek leader in many decades — along with Ibrahim Kalin, Turkey’s presidential spokesman.</p> <p>At the seminary site, Tsipras took part in a religious ceremony headed by Fener Greek Orthodox Patriarch Bartholomew.</p> <p>Established in 1844, the seminary was closed in 1971 under a law that placed religious and military training under state control.</p> <p>On Tuesday Turkish President Erdogan suggested the seminary could be reopened if Athens improved conditions for the Muslim community in Western Thrace, an area of Greece with a large Turkish Muslim population.</p> <p>Before visiting Heybeliada, Tsipras visited the Ayasofya (Hagia Sophia) museum. </p> <p>Built by the Byzantines, Hagia Sophia served as a Christian church until it was converted into a mosque in 1453, when the Ottomans conquered Istanbul. </p> <p>In 1935 it was turned into a museum upon the orders of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the first president of the Republic of Turkey.</p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p>
