(Istanbul) Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced Friday the transformation of the former Hagia Sophia into a mosque, despite warnings abroad, after a court revoked the statute museum of this high place of tourism in Istanbul.
Published on 10 July 2020 in 11 h 24 Updated to 21 h 35
Fulya OZERKAN
France Media Agency
The Council of State, the highest administrative court in Turkey, acceded to the request of several associations by revoking a government decision dating from 1934 giving Sainte-Sophie the status of a museum.
Shortly after this decision, Mr. Erdogan announced that the former Byzantine Basilica of the former Constantinople, would be open to Muslim prayers as a mosque on Friday 24 July.
PHOTO OZAN KOSE, ARCHIVES AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
The former Sainte-Sophie basilica received around 3.8 million visitors in 2019.
“Like all the other mosques, the doors of Hagia Sophia would remain open to everyone, Turks and foreigners, Muslims and non-Muslims,” he added in a speech.
A major architectural work built in the 6th century by the Byzantines who crowned their emperors there, Hagia Sophia is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and one of the main tourist attractions in Istanbul with some 3, 8 million visitors in 2019.
Converted into a mosque after the capture of Constantinople by the Ottomans in 1453, it was transformed into a museum into 1934 by the leader of the young Turkish Republic, Mustafa Kemal, concerned with “the to offer to humanity ”.
The Council of State annulled this decision Friday, explaining in its recitals that according to the acts of property in the name of the Mehmet Fatih Foundation, named after the Ottoman sultan who conquered Constantinople, Hagia Sophia was registered as a mosque and that this qualification could not be modified.
“The chains have been broken”
Several countries, notably Russia and Greece, which closely follow the fate of the Byzantine heritage in Turkey, as well as the United States and France, have in particular warned Ankara against the transformation of Hagia Sophia into Muslim place of worship, a measure for which Mr. Erdogan, from an Islamoconservative party, has campaigned for years.
Reactions were not long in coming: Athens condemned the decision “with the greatest firmness”, Washington said it was “disappointed” and Paris “deplored” it. Greece, through the voice of its Minister of Culture Lina Mendoni, considered that it was a “provocation towards the civilized world”: “The nationalism shown by President Erdogan takes his country back six centuries ”
M. Erdogan, a nostalgic for the Ottoman Empire who is today seeking to rally the conservative electorate against the background of the economic crisis due to the pandemic of new coronavirus and a difficult regional context, has several times said that he is favorable to a reconversion of Saint -Sophy in a mosque.
Last year, he called his transformation into a museum “a very big mistake”.
“Hagia Sophia is probably the most visible symbol of the Ottoman past of Turkey and Erdogan is instrumental in galvanizing its base and measuring its rivals at home and abroad”, dissects Anthony Skinner, from the firm of Verisk Maplecroft consultants.
Since the arrival of Mr. Erdogan in power in 2003, activities related to Islam have multiplied inside Hagia Sophia, with notably sessions of reading the Koran or collective prayers on the square in front of the monument.
” I'm very emotive. The fact that Hagia Sophia loses its status as a museum and becomes a mosque overwhelms all Muslims, “Mucayit Celik, a Stambouliote met in front of the monument, told AFP.
“It's a decision I've been waiting for for years. It’s a shame it hasn’t happened before, that’s why I’m so happy, ”said another Istanbul resident, Umut Cagri.
Several hundred people gathered in front of the former basilica, where a reinforced police force was deployed, waving Turkish flags and chanting “the chains were broken” to celebrate the decision of the Council of State.
Mask on the face due to the coronavirus, they performed the collective evening prayer.
PHOTO EMRAH GUREL, ASSOCIATED PRESS
Even if a reconversion of Hagia Sophia into a mosque will not prevent tourists of all beliefs from going there – many of them visit the nearby Blue Mosque every day -, modify the status of a place so emblematic in the history of Christianity arouses tensions.
The Russian Orthodox Church thus regretted that the “concern” of “millions of Christians” had not been heard by the Turkish court.
Greece, through the voice of the Minister of Culture Lina Mendoni, described the decision of the Turkish court as “provocation towards the civilized world”.
UNESCO Director Audrey Azoulay said in a statement that the organization “deeply regrets” the decision of the Turkish authorities, “taken without prior dialogue”.