Erdoğan to head for the States to open first double-minaret mosque

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan will leave for the US, where he will open the country's largest-ever mosque complex, the Turkish-American Culture and Civilization Center.

Located in Lanham, Maryland, a suburb of Washington, DC, the Center includes a mosque and other facilities including a cultural center, gift shop, coffee house, and guest house. The mosque, built in accordance with Ottoman architecture, will be inaugurated by Erdoğan and US President Barack Obama on April 2. Although there are many mosques in the US, this is the only one that has two minarets.

The mosque, built with Turkish funding under the supervision of Turkey's religious foundation (Diyanet), has the capacity to host 3,000 Muslim believers indoors and outdoors. Constructed in the Seljuk architectural style, the Center also has a library, conference and exhibition halls, and a reception area. It aims to tell people about the facts of the Islamic religion and guide Muslims in prayers and religious principles.

The President will begin his visit by attending a high-level event which will bring together hundreds of nuclear industry CEOs from around the world. Erdoğan is scheduled to meet with presidents and CEOs of 25 of the 100 largest corporations in the world, the Fortune 100, during the fourth Nuclear Industry Summit.

He is also expected to meet with his US counterpart, Barack Obama, on the sidelines of the two-day summit, to be attended by 53 countries and four international organizations.

During his talks, Erdoğan will ask for support for Turkey's membership in the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), the bilateral trade agreement between the European Union and the United States.

Erdoğan is also planning to meet several world leaders during the summit to discuss Syria's prolonged civil war and the resulting refugee crisis.