Turkey reconverts Istanbul’s Hagia Sophia museum into a mosque | Information

Turkey’s president Recep Tayyip Erdogan has declared Istanbul’s Hagia Sophia open up to Muslim worship soon after a prime courtroom dominated that the building’s conversion to a museum by modern Turkey’s founding statesman was illegal.

Erdogan made the announcement on Friday an hour following the court ruling was discovered, even with intercontinental warnings not to alter the status of the practically 1,500-calendar year-previous monument, revered by Christians and Muslims alike.

“The decision was taken to hand above the management of the Ayasofya Mosque … to the Spiritual Affairs Directorate and open up it for worship,” the determination signed by Erdogan said.

Erdogan experienced earlier proposed restoring the mosque status of the UNESCO Globe Heritage Web page, a focal issue of the two the Christian Byzantine and Muslim Ottoman empires and now a single of the most frequented monuments in Turkey.

Before, a top rated Turkish courtroom revoked the Byzantine-period Hagia Sophia’s status as a museum. The Council of State, which was debating a scenario introduced by a Turkish religious organisation, cancelled a 1934 cabinet choice that defined the sixth-century developing as a museum.

“It was concluded that the settlement deed allotted it as a mosque and its use outside this character is not doable legally,” Turkey’s leading administrative court docket mentioned in the ruling.

“The cabinet final decision in 1934 that finished its use as a mosque and outlined it as a museum did not comply with legislation,” it reported.

Erdogan shared on his Twitter feed a duplicate of the decree he experienced signed which explained the selection experienced been taken to hand control of the Ayasofya Mosque, as it is recognized in Turkish, to the country’s spiritual directorate and reopen it for worship.

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Hayırlı olsun. pic.twitter.com/MzP6nzn9Jc

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— Recep Tayyip Erdoğan (@RTErdogan) July 10, 2020

Reporting from Istanbul, Al Jazeera’s Sinem Koseoglu stated the decree was not a shock as Erdogan had earlier stated that he would like to see Hagia Sophia open for Muslim prayers on July 15, the anniversary of a unsuccessful coup endeavor.

Koseoglu stated that in 4 several hours Erdogan was envisioned to make a speech on the worth of the Hagia Sophia, and its standing currently being altered to a mosque once more.

“There are dozens of men and women in front of Hagia Sophia museum. As quickly as the court docket conclusion was announced … they have been below chanting, they have been celebrating given that then, and we spoke to them, they are quite impatient to be able to pray inside of Hagia Sophia,” Koseoglu reported.

Global problems

Hagia Sophia was initially produced as a cathedral in the Christian Byzantine Empire but was converted into a mosque following the Ottoman conquest of Constantinople in 1453.

In 1935, in the early times of the contemporary secular Turkish point out less than Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, it grew to become a museum.

The organisation which brought the court docket circumstance, the most up-to-date in a 16-year lawful struggle, stated the Hagia Sophia was the residence of the Ottoman leader who captured the metropolis in 1453 and turned the currently 900-yr-outdated Byzantine church into a mosque.

Erdogan threw his bodyweight at the rear of the campaign to change the developing right before regional elections previous 12 months. He is owing to speak soon before 9pm (1800 GMT), his head of communications said.

In reaction to the ruling, the Russian Orthodox Church on Friday explained the determination could guide to even bigger divisions.

The United States, Russia and Greece, together with UNESCO, had expressed problems in advance of the ruling.

Erdogan earlier this month rejected international criticism as an assault on Turkey’s sovereignty.

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Al Jazeera and news agencies