The plan for a mosque in Taksim Square has been in the making since 1952. The "Taksim Mosque Building and Sustenance Association" was founded with the aim to construct a mosque in Taksim Square, but was closed after the 1980 military coup in Turkey. The Council of State stopped the Taksim Mosque project in 1983 on the grounds that it was "not in the public interest".[1]