Turkey’s Interim Culture and Tourism Minister Yalçın Topçu has argued that the country is in a war against leading foreign media outlets such as reuters, BBC, CNN and Der Spiegel in what he said a struggle that is similar to Gallipoli battle, the failed British-led naval invasion against the Ottoman Empire.

“While our ancestors fought in Çanakkale with bayonets and canons, we are today face to face with Der Spiegel, BBC, Reuters and we are fighting with them,” he said on Friday.

Topçu, former leader of the nationalist Grand Unity Party (BBP), has been recently appointed as the culture and tourism minister of an interim government led by the Justice and Development Party (AK Party).

Also recently, he expressed his personal desire to see Hagia Sophia museum, a former church turned into a mosque after the conquest of İstanbul, to be turned into a mosque.