Sun 12 July 2020:
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Saturday rejected worldwide condemnation over Turkey’s decision to convert the Byzantine-era monument Hagia Sophia back into a mosque, saying it represented his country’s will to use its “sovereign rights”.
Turkey’s top administrative court on Friday annulled the 1934 government decree that turned Hagia Sophia into a museum. The long-awaited ruling has opened the way for Istanbul’s iconic Hagia Sophia to be used as a mosque.
Upon the court’s ruling, Erdoğan signed a presidential decree to hand over Hagia Sophia to Turkey’s Presidency of Religious Affairs and open for worship while congratulating the Turkish people.
”Accusations against our country about Hagia Sophia directly target our sovereign rights,” said Erdogan, responding to concern over the proposal from the West, particularly Greece, France and the United States.
”We are determined to continue to protect the rights of Muslims, our country’s majority faith, as well as members of all other faiths and religions,” he added at the formal opening of another mosque in Istanbul.
In the past, he has repeatedly called for the stunning building to be renamed as a mosque.
“Those who do not take a step against Islamophobia in their own countries … attack Turkey’s will to use its sovereign rights,” Erdogan said during a ceremony he attended via video-conference.
Hagia Sophia Mosque for worship on July 24
In his speech that started at 8:53 p.m. local time, in an apparent reference to 1453, the year Istanbul was conquered by the Ottomans, Erdoğan said the first prayers to be performed inside the new mosque would be Friday prayers. Just as he was speaking, a group of activists were performing evening prayers outside the Hagia Sophia.
Erdogan called the public not to rush to visit in order to not delay preparations for reopening. He said it would take another six months to finalize all preparations.
Speaking against the backdrop of a copy of Ottoman Sultan Mehmed II’s decree which declared Hagia Sophia as part of his foundation, Erdoğan said it was a 567-year-old right to reclaim Hagia Sophia as a mosque and reminded the sultan’s decree which contained a curse for those who might convert Hagia Sophia to something else than mosque.
“As with all other mosques, the doors of Hagia Sophia will be open to all, including Turkish citizens and tourists. We are planning to open Hagia Sophia Mosque for worship on July 24. Hagia Sophia is under Turkish jurisdiction. Any objection to our judiciary’s decision will be perceived as a breach of our sovereignty,” Erdoğan said.
“Turkish nation’s rights on Hagia Sophia is no less than the right of those who built it 1,500 years ago,” Erdoğan said, in a veiled criticism of other countries denouncing the reversion of museum into mosque. “The history is witness to our struggle to bring tolerance to everywhere our nation conquered.
Today, we have 435 churches and synagogues open for worship. Despite this, we saw the contrary elsewhere. Few buildings our ancestors built in Eastern Europe and Balkans stand today,” he said.
After reciting poems and essays by Turkish authors and thinkers that praised Hagia Sophia and called for its reversion to a mosque, Erdoğan said the structure would be a symbol for the world again. “Resurrection of Hagia Sophia is a harbinger of al-Aqsa Mosque’s liberation,” Erdoğan said, in reference to iconic mosque in Jerusalem where Palestinian Muslims are often barred from praying by Israel.
International reactions
Erdogan went ahead with the plan despite an open appeal from the NATO ally the United States as well as Russia, with which Ankara has forged close relations in recent years.
Greece swiftly condemned the move as a provocation, France deplored it while the US also expressed disappointment.
Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko on Saturday said Moscow regretted the decision.
“The cathedral is on Turkey’s territory, but it is without question everybody’s heritage,” he told the Interfax news agency.
The World Council of Churches wrote to Erdogan expressing “grief and dismay” over the move and urged him to reverse his decision.
Hagia Sophia, one of the world’s most important historical and cultural heritage sites, was built in the sixth century during the reign of the 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 structure was converted into a museum during the strictly secular single-party rule in 1935, but there have been discussions about reverting it to a mosque, with public demand to restore it as a place of worship gaining traction on social media.
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