ANKARA (Reuters) – Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan reconfigured the historic Chora Church, one of Istanbul’s most famous Byzantine buildings, on Friday, a month after the opening of the famous Hagia Sophia for Muslim worship.
PHOTO PHOTO: Turkish policemen guard over the Kariye (Chora) museum, the 11th century church of Saint Savior, during a visit by British Prince Charles and his wife Camilla to Istanbul, 28 November 2007. REUTERS / Fatih Saribas
The medieval Church of the Holy Savior in Chora, built near the ancient city walls of Constantinople, contains 14th-century Byzantine mosaics and frescoes depicting scenes from biblical stories.
They were plastered after the city was conquered by the Muslim Ottomans in 1453, but came to light again when – like Hagia Sophia – more than 70 years ago the building was converted into a museum by the secular republic of Turkey.
Erdogan, whose AK Party is rooted in political Islam, has positioned himself as the champion of the pious Muslims of Turkey and last month he joined tens of thousands of worshipers at the first prayers at Hagia Sophia in 86 years.
The move was sharply criticized by church leaders and some Western countries, who said the conversion of Hagia Sophia exclusively for Muslim worship risked deepening religious rivers.
Last year, a Turkish court overturned a 1945 government decision that turned Chora – known as Kariye in Turkish – into a museum run by the Ministry of Education.
On Friday, an edict signed by Erdogan and published in the official gazette of Turkey declared “the management of the Kariye Mosque will be transferred to the Directorate of Religious Affairs, and (the mosque) will be opened for worship.”
A church was first built on the site in the 4th century, but most of the existing building dates from an 11th-century church that was partially rebuilt 200 years later after an earthquake.
Erdogan’s edict on Friday did not say when the first Muslim prayers would be held at Chora, or what arrangements would be made for the Christian artwork there.
At Hagia Sophia, curtains are drawn for a picture with worshipers of Mary and the children Jesus.
Report by Tuvan Gumrukcu; Edited by Dominic Evans / Mark Heinrich
.
