Turkish court allows Hagia Sophia to be converted into a mosque

Turkey's Supreme Administrative Court has annulled Mustafa Kemal Atatürk's 1934 decision to turn Hagia Sophia into a museum, reported Anadolu news agency . Thus, now the cathedral will turn into a mosque.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan proposed to reconsider the official status of the landmark from the UNESCO World Heritage List, which caused criticism from the world community. UNESCO sent several letters to Ankara expressing concern about this and warned that changing the status of the site imposes certain legal obligations on the Turkish authorities, and the decision itself should be considered by the UN World Heritage Committee.

Against the background of news about the upcoming change in the status of Hagia Sophia, the ROC and Russian parliamentarians also appealed to the Turkish authorities, urging them to take all possible steps to prevent the damage that this “hasty decision” could cause.

“It is a pity that the concerns of the Russian Orthodox Church and other Orthodox churches were not heard. This decision, alas, is not aimed at reconciling the existing contradictions, but, on the contrary, can lead to even greater divisions, ”said Vladimir Legoyda, chairman of the Synodal Department for Church Relations with Society and the Media of the Moscow Patriarchate.

Hagia Sophia was erected by order of Emperor Justinian in the 6th century AD and for almost a thousand years it was the largest temple in the Christian world. After the capture of Constantinople, it was turned into a mosque, but in 1934, by order of Ataturk, the shrine was turned into a museum.