The Turkish president never ceases to surprise, this time in the role of historian: "It was Turkish Muslims who discovered America, not Columbus, as is customary in the Western world.".
It was in the 12th century, Erdogan said, three centuries before Columbus even thought of embarking on his famous voyage, that Turkish-Muslim sailors reached the shores of Central America and discovered the new continent. "The connection between Latin America and Islam began as early as 1178," Erdogan said during a gathering of Muslim leaders.
Erdogan also said that Columbus was aware of the presence of a mosque built on a mountaintop in Cuba. Erdogan did not content himself with revealing the historical truth, but announced - in a provocative move against the backdrop of his relations with the United States - that he intended to build a mosque in Cuba: "Now I will tell my Cuban brother - a mosque would be appropriate on a mountaintop in your country even today. With your permission, Turkey will build the mosque.".
Erdogan's words are based on research by a Muslim professor named Yusuf Marwah, who claims that Columbus's diaries contain information about a mosque that existed in America, but Marwah's words have been rejected by Western historians, who have not found any ruins or remains of a structure reminiscent of a Muslim mosque.
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