Turkey's president marked the 566th anniversary on Wednesday of Istanbul's conquest by Ottoman troops, "which started a new age and changed the course of world history."

"May Ottoman Sultan Mehmet II and his heroic army rest in peace," Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said on Twitter more than half a millennium after Ottoman Sultan Mehmed II stormed the city straddling Europe and Asia on May 29, 1453.

Then called Constantinople, Istanbul had previously been the metropolis from where the Byzantines had ruled the Eastern Roman Empire for more than 1,000 years.

The conquest transformed the city, once the heart of the Byzantine realm, into the capital of the nascent Ottoman Empire.

Erdoğan congratulates Azerbaijan on 101st Republic Day President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Tuesday congratulated Azerbaijan on its 101st Republic Day.“I would like to congratulate on the 101st anniversary of the founding of the Republic of Azerbaijan. I send my greetings to the friendly and brotherly people of Azerbaijan and to my brother [Azerbaijani President] Ilham Aliyev,” Erdogan said in a Twitter post.Presidential spokesman Ibrahim Kalin also extended greetings on the Republic Day of Azerbaijan in a Twitter message, wishing Turkey and Azerbaijan “more beautiful, brighter and stronger days” in the future as “one nation, two states”.