ISTANBUL- President Tayyip Erdogan
declared Istanbul's Hagia Sophia open to Muslim prayer as a
mosque on Friday after a top court ruled that the ancient
building's conversion to a museum by modern Turkey's founding
statesman was illegal.
Erdogan made his announcement just an hour after the court
ruling was published, brushing aside international warnings not
to change the status of the nearly 1,500-year-old monument that
is revered by Christians and Muslims alike.
The United States, Russia and church leaders were among
those to express concern about changing the status of the UNESCO
World Heritage Site, a focal point of both the Christian
Byzantine and Muslim Ottoman empires and now one of the most
visited monuments in Turkey.
Greece's culture ministry described the court decision as an
"open provocation" to the civilized world.
Erdogan has sought to shift Islam into the mainstream of
Turkish politics in his 17 years at the helm. He has long
proposed restoring the mosque status of the sixth-century
building, which was converted into a museum in the early days of
the modern secular Turkish state under Mustafa Kemal Ataturk.
"The decision was taken to hand over the management of the
Ayasofya Mosque. ..to the Religious Affairs Directorate and open
it for worship," the decision signed by Erdogan said.
The Council of State, Turkey's top administrative court,
said in its ruling: "It was concluded that the settlement deed
allocated it as a mosque and its use outside this character is
not possible legally.
"The cabinet decision in 1934 that ended its use as a mosque
and defined it as a museum did not comply with laws," it said,
referring to an edict signed by Ataturk.
APPLAUSE
The association which brought the court case, the latest in
a 16-year legal battle, said Hagia Sophia was the property of
the Ottoman leader who captured the city in 1453 and turned the
already 900-year-old Greek Orthodox cathedral into a mosque.
The Ottomans built minarets alongside the vast domed
structure, while inside they added panels bearing the Arabic
names of God, the Prophet Mohammad, and Muslim caliphs. The
golden mosaics and Christian icons, obscured by the Ottomans,
were uncovered again when Hagia Sophia became a museum.
Erdogan, a pious Muslim, threw his weight behind the
campaign before local elections last year which dealt a painful
blow to his ruling Islamist-rooted AK Party. He was due to speak
shortly before 9 p.m. (1800 GMT).
Hundreds of people gathered near Hagia Sophia celebrating
the ruling. "Those who built this did it to worship God as
well," said Osman Sarihan, a teacher.
"Thank God today it reverted to its main purpose. Today God
will be worshipped in this mosque."
In parliament in Ankara, AK Party members stood and
applauded after Erdogan's decree was read aloud.
By reversing one of Ataturk's most symbolic steps, which
underlined the former leader's commitment to a secular republic,
Erdogan has capped his own project to restore Islam in public
life, said Soner Cagaptay, director of the Turkish Research
Program at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.
"Hagia Sophia is the crowning moment of Erdogan's religious
revolution which has been unfolding in Turkey for over a
decade," he said, pointing to greater emphasis on religion in
education and across government.
The Russian Orthodox Church said it regretted that the court
did not take its concerns into account when making its ruling
and said the decision could lead to even greater divisions, the
TASS news agency reported. UNESCO also expressed regret at the
move.
Previously, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, the spiritual
head of some 300 million Orthodox Christians worldwide and based
in Istanbul, said converting it into a mosque would disappoint
Christians and would "fracture" East and West.
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo had also urged Turkey to
maintain the building as a museum.
But Turkish groups have long campaigned for Hagia Sophia's
conversion, saying it would better reflect Turkey's status as an
overwhelmingly Muslim country.
Reuters