Turkey’s Hagia Sophia to be converted into a Mosque
Istanbul, 10th July: The iconic cultural site has reopened for Muslim worship, declared President Erdogan after a court ruling.
Hagia Sophia was built as a cathedral by the Byzantine Empire but after the Ottoman conquest of Constantinople in 1453, it was converted into a mosque. In the early days of the modern secular Turkish state under Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, in 1935, it was further converted to a museum.
Turkey’s President, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, declared Hagia Sophia open for Muslim worship after the court ruled that the building’s conversion to a museum by modern Turkey’s founding statesman was illegal.
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An hour after the court ruling was revealed, Erdogan announced it to the public despite the international warnings and pleas of not changing the status of the 1,500-year-old monument.
The document signed by Erdogan stated that ‘The decision was taken to hand over the management of the Ayasofya Mosque to the Religious Affairs Directorate and open it for worship.’
Erdogan had previously proposed the idea of restoring the mosque status of the UNESCO World Heritage Site, which is one of the most visited monuments of Turkey and is a focal point for both the Christian Byzantine and Muslim Ottoman empires.
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Previously, a top Turkish court revoked the status of the Hagia Sophia as a museum. The Council of State, which was debating a case brought by a Turkish religious organization, canceled a 1934 cabinet decision that defined the sixth-century building as a museum.
Turkey’s top administrative court claimed in a ruling that, ‘It was concluded that the settlement deed allocated it as a mosque and its use outside this character is not possible legally.’ It also stated ‘the cabinet decision in 1934 that ended its use as a mosque and defined it as a museum did not comply with laws.’
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On his Twitter account, Erdogan shared a copy of the decree he had signed, it had stated that the decision had been taken to hand control of the Ayasofya Mosque, as it is known in Turkish, to the country’s religious directorate and reopen it for worship.
Hayırlı olsun. pic.twitter.com/MzP6nzn9Jc
— Recep Tayyip Erdoğan (@RTErdogan) July 10, 2020
Sinem Koseoglu told Al Jazeera from Istanbul that the decree was not a surprise since the President had previously shared his sentiments about liking to see Hagia Sophia open for Muslim prayers on July 15, the anniversary of a failed coup attempt.
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‘There are dozens of people in front of Hagia Sophia museum. As soon as the court decision was announced … they have been here chanting, they have been celebrating since then, and we spoke to them, they are very impatient to be able to pray inside Hagia Sophia,’ Koseoglu further explained.
Erdogan was expected to give a speech 4 hours after the decision was made, about the importance of the Hagia Sophia, and the alteration of its status back to a mosque.
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