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...The decision of the High Administrative Court opens the way for Hagia Sophia to become a mosque again, that will fill many Turkish Muslims with joy; after all, they have been waiting for so long to “break the chains” of Hagia Sophia and enter the place for free as they do with any other place of their faith. ...That, however, is not the view from outside Turkey. As the issue started gathering momentum this year, especially following the special celebrations organized in front of the monument for the 567th anniversary of its conquest. Christians around the world, Byzantine scholars or...

Turkey's President Erdogan has formally converted the former Hagia Sophia cathedral into a mosque to drum up support for his Islamic-rooted party... The move came hours after Turkey's highest administrative court issued a landmark ruling that unanimously annulled the 1934 cabinet decision to renovate the site into a museum. It meant the green light was given for Erdogan to restore the UNESCO World Heritage site's previous status as a mosque, reopening it to Muslim worship. Erdogan, a devout Muslim, is scheduled to deliver an address to the nation later today and has frequently used the Hagia Sophia issue... Nationalist and...

Vatican silent as verdict triggers geopolitical tremorsISTANBUL (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...

In a “resounding” intervention with multidimensional nuances on the issue of Hagia Sophia, Patriarch Kirill of Moscow called not to turn Hagia Sophia into a mosque. In a statement, Patriarch Kirill stressed his deep concern over the calls of certain Turkish politicians to reconsider the status of Hagia Sophia as a museum, “one of the greatest monuments of Christian culture.” He highlighted that there have been different, sometimes rather difficult periods in the history of relations between Rus’ and Constantinople. But “the Russian people responded in the past and respond now with bitterness and indignation to any attempt to degrade...

Armenian patriarch surprisingly backs President ErdoÄŸanÂ’s position, asking also for Christian prayer at famous former church. After 85 years as a museum, the Hagia Sophia is poised to once again become a mosque. Might it also again become a church? A Turkish court is scheduled to rule on July 2 if the iconic Byzantine basilica can be opened for Muslim worship. Built in 537 by Emperor Justinian, in 1453 the Ottoman sultan Mehmet II converted the Hagia Sophia into a mosque. Five centuries later, the secularizing founder of modern Turkey, Kamal Ataturk, turned it into a museum. UNESCO designated the...

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has instructed his aides to conduct a comprehensive study of the possibility of converting the status of the famous Agia Sophia in Istanbul from a museum back into a mosque, the Turkish paper Hurriyet reported today. “Do the research, then we will all assess and talk about it. Tourists will still be able to visit Agia Sophia if it becomes a mosque, as happens with the Blue Mosque on Sultanahmet Square,” the President said at a meeting of the Central Executive Board of the ruling Justice and Development Party, which is chaired by Erdogan himself....

The chairman of the Religious and Foundation Employees’ Union (Diyanet Bir-Sen), Hasan Türüt, has called on Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to allow a Muslim prayer to be performed in Hagia Sophia in Constantinople, following the lifting of the ban due to the coronavirus pandemic. According to Turkish media reports, Türüt said that the first Friday after the coronavirus pandemic the Muslim prayer should be performed in Hagia Sophia, as Mehmed the Conqueror did on the first Friday after the Fall of Constantinople. “Hagia Sophia is the means to bring about the resurrection of the world. We must all show...

Agia Sophia, the ancient Christian cathedral in Istanbul, will never become a church again, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said recently in an angry commentary on the deadly New Zealand mosque shootings, reports Romfea. The shooter’s manifesto targets Turks and Erdoğan specifically, reports Egypt Today. “We are coming for Constantinople and we will destroy every mosque and minaret in the city. The Hagia Sophia will be free of minarets and Constantinople will be rightfully christian [sic] owned once more,” the text reads. The Turkish President reacted to this statement, calling the murder a “scumbag, who dared to call the city...

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan proposed converting the fabled Hagia Sophia into a mosque on Sunday. The Greek government responded with anger on Monday, pointing out that the Hagia Sophia was the seat of Greek Orthodox Christianity for centuries and has been designated a World Heritage Site by the United Nations. Erdogan said during a television interview on Sunday that the Hagia Sophia might be “reverted” into a mosque, referring to the structure’s status as a mosque following the Ottoman conquest of Constantinople in 1453 A.D. The Hagia Sophia was constructed as a relatively modest Greek Orthodox church in 360,...

Australia’s prime minister said he would summon Turkey’s ambassador in Canberra on Wednesday to explain “very offensive” comments made by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in the wake of the Christchurch massacre, AFP reported. Erdoğan, while campaigning for local elections, presented the attack as part of an assault on Turkey and Islam and that warned anti-Muslim Australians would suffer the same fate as soldiers at Gallipoli, a blood-drenched World War I battle.“I find it a very offensive comment, of course I do, and I will be calling in the Turkish ambassador today to meet with me to discuss these issues,” Scott...

The Turkish Supreme Court rejected a request from one of the religious groups. They had asked for the historical museum of Hagia Sophia to be transformed into a mosque. According to the Anatolian agency reporting the news on Thursday, the Court dismissed the case because of errors made in the written request. The basilica of Hagia Sophia was transformed into a mosque during the fall of Constantinople in 1453, then into a museum in 1935. According to Turkish law, worship is prohibited in museums.

STANBUL – Turkey's president has recited an Islamic prayer in the Hagia Sophia, a historic Istanbul landmark that has become a symbol of interfaith and diplomatic tensions. Speaking for an art festival opening Saturday, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan recited the Quran's first verse, dedicating the prayer to the "souls of all who left us this work as inheritance, especially Istanbul's conqueror." The Hagia Sophia was built during the 6th century Christian Byzantine Empire and served as the seat of the Greek Orthodox Church. It was converted into an imperial mosque with the Ottoman conquest of Istanbul in 1453.

The Islamist Felicity Party (Turkish: Saadet Partisi) organized the “Great Jerusalem demonstration” on July 30 in Istanbul. This event attended by thousands of people who condemned Israel following the recent incidents on the Temple Mount.The demo quickly turned into an anti-Israel and anti-Jew hate fest in which several Islamic activists delivered harsh speeches against the Jewish State. Mustafa Koylu, the head of the Cansuyu Association, said, “You have to do one thing so that those who do not see Turkey as a man and as a state will think once again. Open Hagia Sophia to [Muslim] worship! Open it! If...

As the time for afternoon prayers approaches, Onder Soy puts on a white robe and cap and switches on the microphone in a small 19th century room adjoining the Hagia Sophia. Soon, Soy’s melodic call to prayer rings out over a square filled with tourists hurrying to visit some of Turkey’s most famous historical sights before they close for the day. The room Soy is in — built as a resting place for the sultan and now officially called the Hagia Sophia mosque — fills up with around 40 worshipers, drawn not by the modestly decorated space itself, but by...

For eight decades, the iconic Hagia Sophia [Ἁγία Σοφία, “Holy Wisdom”] – museum in Istanbul [Constantinople] has stood as a symbol of Turkey’s commitment to a secular society. Now that tradition is under siege by growing calls to convert the historic structure back into a practicing mosque. The 1,500-year-old structure originally was built as an Orthodox Christian cathedral. It was turned into a mosque in the 15th century after the Ottoman Turks defeated the Greek emperor in Constantinople and renamed the city Istanbul. In the 1930s, the founder of modern Turkey, Kemal Ataturk, turned it into a museum in his...

Observers are warning about Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s increasingly neo-Ottoman stance and disregard for secular prerogatives.” Indeed, and this new appointment essentially completes the motion of making the Hagia Sophia into a functioning mosque again. European Union officials ought to see this for what it is: a decisive rejection of any pretense of dealing with the Christian or post-Christian West on a mutually respectful basis. Erdogan is an Islamic supremacist and is pursuing an openly supremacist imperative. European officials who are still pushing for Turkey’s entry into the EU, as well as the ongoing phenomenon of massive Muslim immigration...

A muezzin’s call to prayer reverberated inside the sixth-century Istanbul landmark Hagia Sophia for the first time in 85 years on July 1. The building in the city’s historic Sultanahmet district broadcast the azan from its minarets following July 1’s Laylat al-Qadr, or night of power, marking the first revelation of the Quran to the Prophet Muhammad. The broadcast of the morning call to prayer from within Hagia Sophia is likely to reignite controversy over the use of the building, which was designated a museum in 1935 under Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the founder of the modern Turkish Republic. Although the...

The morning prayer from the Koran was read at Hagia Sophia in Istanbul on the first day of Muslim Ramadan, Monday, June 6, in the presence of Turkey’s general secretary of religious affairs. The former Byzantine church that now serves as a museum, will turn into a mosque for the next 30 days and the Koran will be read daily until July 5, when Ramadan ends. Religious state channel TRT Diyanet will be broadcasting daily at 2:00 pm from Hagia Sophia. The fact that the former Christian Orthodox Church that for the past 80 years has operated as a museum...

An angry war of words has erupted between Greece and Turkey after Turkish authorities permitted a daily Koran reading to be broadcast from Turkey’s famous Hagia Sophia, a former Byzantine cathedral. Turkish national broadcaster TRT Diyanet will broadcast the sahur or Islamic predawn meal along with daily readings from the Koran during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan which began Monday. Greece’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs condemned the move in a statement calling it “bigotry” and “not compatible with modern, democratic and secular societies.”

On Saturday thousands of Muslim worshippers descended on Istanbul's world famous Hagia Sophia, the towering former Byzantine church that is now a museum, to demand the right to pray there, Turkish media reported. An imam led a prayer in front of the vast building that was once a Greek Orthodox basilica, then a mosque and now a museum before crowds called for it to be restored as a Muslim place of worship. "Let the chains break, open Hagia Sophia," chanted the crowds who gathered on the plaza in front of the museum, according to Turkey's Dogan news agency. "In the...