Hagia Sophia: Turkey will rule to turn the site into a mosque

The Turkish Council of State must decide whether the Hagia Sophia church in Istanbul can be converted into a mosque.

Built in the 6th century by order of the Byzantine emperor Justinian I, it was the largest cathedral in the world for almost 1,000 years.

The Unesco World Heritage site was converted to a mosque when the Ottoman Empire captured the city in 1453, but it became a museum in the 1930s.

It can become a mosque again if the measure is approved by the court on Thursday.

Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan called for the change during an election rally last year.

Islamists in Turkey have long called for him to convert, but secular members of the opposition have opposed the move. The proposal has drawn international criticism from religious and political leaders around the world.

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The head of the Eastern Orthodox Church has opposed the measure, as has Greece, home to many millions of Orthodox followers.

Culture Minister Lina Mendoni accused Turkey of reviving “fanatical religious and nationalist sentiment”, insisting that no change can be made to a Unesco World Heritage site without the approval of the agency’s own intergovernmental committee.

Unesco deputy director Ernesto Ottone Ramírez agreed that broader approval was needed, in an interview with the Greek newspaper Ta Nea.

The UN body had written to Turkey about the proposal, but received no response, he said.

What is the history

The iconic domed building is located in the Fatih district of Istanbul, on the west bank of the Bosphorus.

Justinian ordered the massive construction built in 532, when the city, then known as Constantinople, was the capital of the Byzantine Empire, also known as the Eastern Roman Empire. Engineers brought materials from all over the Mediterranean to build the colossal cathedral.

Upon completion in 537 it became the seat of the capital’s Orthodox Patriarch. Byzantine imperial ceremonies such as coronations took place in the building.

The Hagia Sophia church served as the home of the Eastern Orthodox Church for almost 900 years, save for a brief period in the 13th century when it was a Catholic cathedral under the control of European invaders who looted and occupied Constantinople during the Fourth Crusade.

But in 1453, the Ottoman Empire under the command of Sultan Mehmed II captured Constantinople and renamed the city of Istanbul, ending the Byzantine Empire once and for all.

Upon entering Hagia Sophia, Mehmed II insisted that it be renovated and converted into a mosque. He attended the first prayers on Friday in the building, days after it was looted by the invading forces.

Ottoman architects removed or plastered the Orthodox symbols inside and added spiers and minarets to the structure. Until the completion of the Istanbul Blue Mosque in 1616, the Hagia Sophia church was the city’s main mosque, and its architecture inspired the builders of the Blue Mosque and several others in the city and the world.

After the end of World War I in 1918, the Ottoman Empire was defeated and divided by the victorious allies. However, nationalist forces rose up and created modern Turkey from the ashes of that empire.

Turkey’s founder and the first president of the secular republic, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, ordered the Hagia Sophia church to be converted into a museum. Since its reopening to the public in 1935, it has become one of the most visited tourist attractions in Turkey.

Why does that matter?

Due to its 1,500 year history, the Hagia Sophia church is of great religious, spiritual and political importance to groups inside and outside Turkey.

Islamist groups and devout Muslims demand that the building be converted into a mosque, and have organized protests outside it, against a 1934 law banning religious services at the site.

President Erdogan echoed those calls. In a campaign speech before last year’s local elections, he said it had been a “big mistake” to turn the Hagia Sophia into a museum, and that he has since asked attendees to examine how to convert the building.

The head of the Eastern Orthodox Church, known as the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople, is still based in Istanbul. Patriarch Bartholomew I warned on Tuesday that the conversion of the building would “disappoint millions of Christians” and fracture two worlds.

United States Secretary of State Mike Pompeo warned that any change in the state of Hagia Sophia would diminish its ability to “serve humanity as a much-needed bridge between those of different religious traditions and cultures.”

Last week, the United States Ambassador to Freedom of International Religious Freedom, Sam Brownback, asked Turkey to leave the building as it was.

But Turkish Chancellor Mevlut Cavusoglu insisted that Athens had nothing to say in the decision, since the building was on Turkish territory.

“What we do in our country and with our property is up to us,” 24 TV reportedly told the Turkish station.