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Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has taken the initiative to turn the Cathedral of Wisdom into a mosque once again, as if fulfilling the dream of oneself, one of our supporters and one of the conservative Muslims living outside the Turkey borders. Even before the decision was made internationally, the country’s leader’s ambitions received strong criticism and backlash.
The mere idea of changing the status of this monument has exacerbated tensions between Turkey and Greece, angered Christians around the world, and received widespread criticism from secular and spiritual leaders, from Patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church Kirill to the Secretary of State of the United States Mike Pompeo.
Opponents of RT Erdogan noted that he raised the issue of changing the state of the sanctuary as soon as there was a threat of confrontation with the political crisis, in order to win the support of conservative and nationalist citizens.
AFP / Scanpix photo / Greeks protest against Thessaloniki in Thessaloniki Translation of the Cathedral of Wisdom in the mosque
However, given the scale of the challenges facing the Turkish president, it became clear that his ambitions should have been taken more seriously this time than before. He lost in Istanbul in last year’s elections, and this year his party’s ratings plummeted to a pandemic as the country’s already fragile economy deteriorated.
On Friday, the BNS announced that the Turkish Supreme Court had revoked St. Wisdom’s Cathedral had museum status and paved the way for the re-transformation of this 6th century. A barrel in a mosque. The Council of State, after examining a lawsuit filed by a Turkish NGO, reversed a 1934 government decision and ruled that the cathedral, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, should be reopened to the Muslim faithful.
Once the museum is converted into a mosque, the mosaics will need to be covered.
Since RT Erdogan became mayor of Istanbul 25 years ago, he has tried to make a mark on his beloved city. He cleaned and cleaned the Golden Horn, built a bridge and tunnels over it, and built new mosques in the most important parts of the city.
This time, however, steps were taken at St. At the Cathedral of Wisdom, or Hagia Sophia, one of the oldest and most impressive architectural cathedrals in the world. The building is a historical pride of the entire peninsula.
Built in 537, St. The Cathedral of Wisdom has been the heart of the Christian world for almost a thousand years. The building adorned the magnificent Constantinople like a crown. No shrine has exceeded the size of the cathedral, and the dome remains one of the most impressive in the world.
In 1453, Mehmed II occupied Constantinople, and although his soldiers looted everything they could bear, the sanctuary was preserved and turned into a mosque. For over 500 years, the building has been glorified as the center of the Muslim Ottoman Empire.
The Turks proudly say that during the Ottoman Empire, the building was very well maintained and the rulers named the best architects to maintain and improve it. The minarets were handed over to the cathedral, and the famous Ottoman architect Sinan designed massive supports to protect the walls from the weight of the earthquake-damaged dome.
With the fall of the Ottoman Empire, Saint The status of the Cathedral of Wisdom changed once again. Considered the father of the modern Turkish state, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk began the secularization of the state. He separated religion from state institutions and tried to remove this from state life. He closed many mosques. Byzantine churches, including St. The Cathedral of Wisdom has been turned into museums and opened to tourism, security and science.
But Erdogan’s supporters call the cathedral the third holiest place in Islam after the Mecca Grand Mosque and Al Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem, and demand that the building that was once declared a mosque never be deconstructed.
Representing a conservative Muslim tradition, R. T. Erdogan tends to gradually abolish the secular rules of the republic introduced by M. Ataturk. In this way, he seems to be trying to revive the glory of the Ottoman Empire.
AFP / Scanpix photo / Portraits of Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Mustafa Kemal Ataturk and the President of Turkey himself
In late May, he sent the most significant signal to date at St. Wisdom Cathedral, when he remotely (due to the coronavirus) opened a ceremony and event to commemorate the 567th anniversary of the occupation of Constantinople.
For the first time in more than 80 years, an imam sat on a carpeted platform in front of the Koran at that event and recited the Al-Fath, which celebrates the treaty between the people of Mecca and Medina.
This recitation surprised many. The Greek Minister for Foreign Affairs, who considers himself a continuation of the Byzantine tradition, has declared this to be unacceptable and mentions Saint The status of the Cathedral of Wisdom as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Eastern Orthodox Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew said that turning the shrine into a mosque would upset millions of Christians around the world and oppose Christians and Muslims, even though the place had become so much a cult object for religions as for cultures.
Devlet Bachel, a comrade-in-arms of the President of Turkey, declared that St. Wisdom Cathedral “is the mosque of victory for the Turkish Muslim nation” and that “this truth will not change.”
During a sermon last week, he said: “We see this as harm because Saint The Cathedral of Wisdom, thanks to its dedication to the wisdom of God, is a place where both religions meet, and the source of admiration for both is it will become a source of confrontation and conflict in the 21st century. “
He urged the Turks to respect what he called a commitment to the world.
Other secular and spiritual Western leaders have also called on Turkey to retain the secular status of the temple.
Even in Turkey, the entire debate on the state of the temple is seen as a political ambition by RT Erdogan to maintain an advantage over his opponents: some former comrades of the Turkish president, members of the Justice and Development Party have split from this and threatened with seizing part of the conservative electorate.
TR Erdogan stated that St. The question of the Cathedral of Wisdom is exclusively a Turkish problem. It rebuked Greece, which had previously expressed its discontent, that it was interfering in the internal affairs of another country and that Turkey was acting in accordance with the law.
“You control Turkey, don’t you? Turkey has its own institutions, “he said.
Devlet Bachel, a comrade-in-arms of the President of Turkey, also participated in the discussion, claiming that Saint The Cathedral of Wisdom “is the mosque of victory for the Turkish Muslim nation” and that “this truth will not change.”
AFP / Scanpix Photo / Blink Inside the museum of wisdom
However, Ertugrul Gunay, the former Minister of Culture of RT Erdogan’s Cabinet of Ministers, said the president was causing a storm due to St. Wisdom’s Cathedral only to demonstrate that he still rules Istanbul even after losing the municipal elections .
In an interview, he said that “it is necessary to become more visible in Istanbul and assimilate certain historical and religious rituals.”
“There are many large mosques throughout Istanbul,” he added later. – This debate on St. The translation of the Cathedral of Wisdom in the mosque, caused by the Turkish conservative forces, is old and unnecessary. “
In addition to politics, art historians and custodians fear that once the monument becomes a functioning mosque, they will lose the opportunity to explore it, and tourism companies and city authorities are concerned that this will deter visitors and reduce your flows. S t. The Cathedral of Wisdom is the most visited monument in the country. Last year alone, 3.7 million visitors came here.
“I am more interested in preserving the building as a cultural asset,” said Zetnep Ahunbay, curator and architect. He has served on the Research Committee of the Wisdom Committee for a quarter century. “The best way to preserve and present it is through the museum’s activities.”
What is most feared is what awaits the exclusive mosaics in the sanctuary representing Jesus Christ, Saint The Virgin Mary, John the Baptist and historical figures such as Emperor Justinian I and Empress Zoja, one of the few female rulers who they ruled under their own government.
The mosaics have been hidden under the lime for more than five centuries, since during the Ottoman rule the representation of people in the sanctuaries was considered blasphemy. The works of art were revealed only when St. Wisdom’s Cathedral was converted into a museum in the 1930s.
Once the museum is converted into a mosque, the mosaics will need to be covered during prayers. Tourists and non-Muslims will have restricted access to certain areas of the sanctuary.
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