[Turkey's] Top Court Declares Hagia Sophia a Mosque

Church Militant ^ | 7/9/20 | Jules Gomes

[marshmallow]

Vatican silent as verdict triggers geopolitical tremors

ISTANBUL (ChurchMilitant.com) - In a historic verdict, Turkey's top court has returned the world's greatest Byzantine basilica to its previous status as a mosque after it abolished President Atatürk's 1934 decision to turn Hagia Sophia into a museum.

Turkey's highest administrative court, the Council of State, reached a unanimous verdict declaring that president Kemal Atatürk's cabinet had no right to turn Hagia Sophia into a museum as part of his secularist reforms and has rendered the decision unlawful.

The court is expected to deliver its judgment Friday, but Turkish journalist Mehmet Ardıç, a close advisor of the current radical Islamic president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, broke the news Wednesday. "The countdown has begun," he tweeted.

Numan Kurtulmuş, deputy chairman of Turkey's governing Justice and Development Party (AKP), told Turkish media that on July 15, or even earlier, Hagia Sophia will be opened as a mosque "for prayer." The ruling was also confirmed by the popular Turkish history Twitter channel Ottoman Records.

A Sign of Continued Jihad?

Emperor Justinian the Great dedicated the Church of Hagia Sophia in Constantinople to the Wisdom of God in 537. Sultan Mohammed II conquered Constantinople and converted the basilica into a mosque in 1453.

Speaking to Church Militant, world-renowned Islamic historian Robert Spencer pointed out that under the radical Islamic rule of president Erdoğan, the ruling was not at all surprising.

[deadrock]

Nice. You always come strong with pop culture references.

[peter the great]

No the Hagia Sophia was what the Vatican was to the Eastern Church meaning the Greeks, Russians Serbs, Arabs and the like.

[Vendome]

Sounds like slavery to me

[JParris]

Don’t worry, nothing will be done about it.

A war was fought for that piece of earth and decided in 1453. Wars have been the determining factor for ownership and borders since the beginning of civilization. The spoils belong to the turks to do with as they please unless some one wants to challenge the ownership with a war.

[JoanSmith]

Orthodox.

[Robert357]

I am not surprised. When I visited a few years ago, there were Imams reading prayers in the Museum and it was clear that people in power wanted to convert it to a Mosque.

After the end of WW1, Turkey tried hard to become secular and built many protections into its Constitution. Their leaders wanted to modernize and become part of “Europe.” Times have changed and Muslim leaders have gotten much more militant and “in your face.” Still a lot of the people I met in Turkey just wanted to get along and live a life in peace.