The last time Turkey allowed a new church to be built, Time Magazine was publishing its first issue, Warner Brothers established their movie studio and President Warren Harding was succeeded by Calvin Coolidge.

The Syriac Christian church will be built not far from Greek Orthodox, Armenian and Catholic churches in a suburb of Istanbul.  Until this new construction was approved, the only construction allowed by the government was refurbishing established church buildings.

Only about 100,000 of the 80 million people in Turkey are Christian.

The move is seen as mainly political.  Turkey has been under fire from the European Union after an ancient Byzantine church was converted into a mosque and all traces of Christian history wiped from the building.

The ruling party in Turkey has been working to align themselves with other Muslim-majority nations in the Middle East.