A court had previously objected to the construction of the mosque as it decided it would be against the public interest. It also sparked a wave of protests in 2013.[8] In January 2017, the mosque was approved by the Cultural Monuments Preservation Board, which oversees the construction of protected, historic sites, thereby removing the last obstacle to the construction of the mosque. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan defended the cause since becoming Istanbul’s mayor in 1994.