Sainte-Sophie has been a museum since 1935 and open to believers of all faiths.
Istanbul:
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced on Friday that the Hagia Sophia, one of the architectural marvels of the world, would be reopened for Muslim worship, causing fury from the Christian community and neighboring Greece.
His statement came after a Turkish high court revoked the status of the 6th century Byzantine museum as a museum, paving the way for its reconstruction as a mosque.
The UNESCO World Heritage Site in the historic city of Istanbul, a magnet for tourists from around the world, was first built as a cathedral in the Christian Byzantine Empire, but was transformed into a mosque after the Ottoman conquest of Constantinople in 1453.
The Council of State, the highest administrative court in Turkey, unanimously overturned a cabinet decision in 1934 to turn it into a museum and declared that Hagia Sophia was listed as a mosque in its deeds of ownership.
This historic move could ignite tensions not only with the West and Turkey’s historic enemy, Greece, but also with Russia, with which Erdogan has forged an increasingly close partnership in recent years.
“Millions of Christians are not heard”
Greece quickly called Turkey’s Muslim-majority decision “a provocation open to the civilized world“.
“Erdogan’s nationalism … takes his country back six centuries,” said Culture Minister Lina Mendoni in a statement.
The Russian Orthodox Church was just as scathing.
“The concern of millions of Christians has not been heard,” Church spokesman Vladimir Legoida told Interfax news agency.
The ruling “shows that all the arguments regarding the need to handle the situation in an extremely delicate manner have been ignored,” he said.
UNESCO Head Audrey Azoulay said she “deeply regrets” the decision made without prior dialogue with the United Nations cultural agency.
The move was also condemned by the United States Commission for International Religious Freedom, which said it was an “unequivocal politicization” of the monument.
Hagia Sophia, which is opposite the impressive Sultanahmet Mosque – often called the Blue Mosque, has been a museum since 1935 and open to believers of all faiths.
Transforming it from a mosque was a key reform under the new republic born from the ashes of the Ottoman Empire.
Sharing a presidential decree that called Hagia Sophia a “mosque”, Erdogan announced that his administration would be handed over to the leadership of religious affairs in Turkey known as Diyanet.
“May we be blessed,” he said. The decree was published in the Official Journal.
Erdogan has in recent years placed great emphasis on the battles that culminated in the defeat of Byzantium by the Ottomans, with lavish celebrations held annually to mark the conquest.
Muslim clerics have sometimes recited prayers at the museum on key anniversaries or religious festivals.
“The move aims to score points with the pious and nationalist voters of Erdogan,” said Anthony Skinner of the risk assessment company Verisk Maplecroft.
“Hagia Sophia is perhaps the most visible symbol of Turkey’s Ottoman past – the one that Erdogan exploits to strengthen its base while snubbing its domestic and foreign rivals,” he told AFP.
“Broken chains”
A few hundred Turks carrying Turkish flags gathered in front of Hagia Sophia shouting “Broken chains, Hagia Sophia has reopened”.
The police have tightened security measures around the building, according to AFP journalists.
“It’s been a dream since we were children,” said Erdal Gencler, a resident of Istanbul.
“(Hagia Sophia) is back to its true purpose. We are very excited, proud and we hope there will be great services here,” he added.
Fatma, a woman with watery eyes, said: “Of course I cry. (Hagia Sophia) belongs to us.”
Before the court decision, Minister of Justice Abdulhamit Gul shared a photo of Hagia Sophia on his official Twitter account, with a message: “Have a good Friday.”
Finance Minister Berat Albayrak, son-in-law of Erdogan, tweeted that Hagia Sophia would be reopened to Muslim worship “sooner or later”, referring to a quote from Turkish poet Necip Fazil Kisakurek.
On July 2, the Council of State debated the case brought by a Turkish group, the Association for the Protection of Historic Monuments and the Environment, which demanded the reopening of Hagia Sophia for Muslim prayers.
Since 2005, several attempts to modify the state of the building have taken place. In 2018, the Constitutional Court rejected a request.
Despite occasional protests outside the site by Islamic groups, Turkish authorities have so far kept the building as a museum.
(With the exception of the title, this story was not edited by GalacticGaming staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
