For the first time in XNUMX years, the call to prayer is called in the Hagia Sophia mosque.

For the first time in XNUMX years, the call to prayer is called in the Hagia Sophia mosque.

After 86 years, Turkey restores the “Hagia Sophia” mosque 

For the first time, the call to prayer is raised from the famous Hagia Sophia Museum in Istanbul after the Turkish president signed the decision to return the building to a mosque, 86 years after it was converted into a museum. The Turkish authorities took strict security measures in the vicinity of “Ayasofya” prior to the court’s decision.

Yesterday, the Turkish judiciary annulled the decision of the Council of Ministers issued in 1934 to convert the “Ayasofya” mosque into a museum. It was considered illegal. It is related to the extent of the legitimacy of a decision taken in 1934, ten years after Mustafa Kemal Ataturk established the modern secular republic, to convert the archaeological building into a museum after it was a mosque during the era of the Ottoman Empire, after turning it from a cathedral church into a mosque after the conquest of Constantinople and the fall of the Byzantine Empire. .

The body that brought the lawsuit said that Hagia Sophia belonged to the Ottoman Sultan, Mehmed II, nicknamed Mehmed the Conqueror, who took control of the city in 1453, which was known at the time as Constantinople, and converted the already 900-year-old church into a mosque.

The Greek government considered that the Turkish judiciary's decision, which opens the way for converting the Hagia Sophia church in Istanbul into a mosque, is a "provocation to the civilized world." Greek Culture Minister Lina Mandoni said that the "nationalism shown by the Turkish president will set his country back six centuries."

The Turkish president said earlier, "No one has the right and authority to interfere in the affairs of places of worship in Turkey. We do not interfere in the affairs and management of places of worship in other countries." The Turkish presidential spokesman assured the visitors of the Historical Hagia Sophia Museum that opening Hagia Sophia for worship does not detract from its global historical identity, and that more people can visit it.

Hagia Sophia is an architectural masterpiece built by the Byzantines in the sixth century and they were crowning their emperors there. It was included on the list of the World Heritage of the United Nations Educational, Cultural and Scientific Organization (UNESCO), and is one of the most important tourist destinations in Istanbul. After the Ottomans seized Constantinople in 1453, before the Ottoman Sultan Mehmed the Conqueror turned it into a mosque in 1453 and then into a museum in 1935 by a decision From the then-president of the young Republic of Turkey, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, with the aim of “dedicating it to humanity.”

The fate of Hagia Sophia worries Greece and Russia, which closely monitor the Byzantine heritage in Turkey, as well as the United States and France, which have warned Ankara against converting the building into a mosque, which the Turkish president has sought for years. This Turkish move received great opposition from a number of countries, As well as from the Orthodox Christian denominations. On Friday, the Russian Orthodox Church expressed its regret that the Turkish judiciary did not listen to the “fears of millions of Christians,” and for allowing the conversion of the former Hagia Sophia Church in Istanbul into a mosque.

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