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News ID: 80477
Publish Date : 10 July 2020 - 21:39

Turkey Converts Hagia Sophia Into Mosque

ISTANBUL (Middle East Eye) -- Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan officially signed a decree to convert Istanbul’s Hagia Sophia from a museum into a mosque, following a court ruling on the ancient building earlier Friday.
A Turkish court unanimously ruled that a past cabinet decision that made the Byzantine-era building a museum is null and void, opening the way for the government to convert it into a mosque once again.
The verdict came after the representatives of an association sued the government earlier this year for converting the Hagia Sophia into a museum in the 1930s through a cabinet decision that was signed by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the founder of modern Turkey.
Erdogan was to address the nation on the issue through a television broadcast on Friday evening.
In court, the Permanent Foundations and Service to Historical Artifacts and the Environment argued that the building was endowed as a mosque under Mehmed II, the conqueror of Istanbul who owned the property.
The Council of State’s 10th circle said in the judgment that the Ottoman Sultan Mehmed II registered Hagia Sophia as an endowment that could be only used as a mosque.
"The property belongs to the Fatih Sultan Mehmet Foundation. The charter of the foundation presents the building as a mosque for the public use and it has been registered as a mosque in the land registry,” the judgment said.
"The state has the responsibility to ensure the use of the endowment as the donor wishes. The charters also make it impossible to utilize the building other than a mosque. Therefore the cabinet decision isn’t consistent with the rule of law and it is unanimously cancelled.”  

Since last year, Erdogan has backed the idea of returning the building’s mosque status in several speeches, in an attempt to satisfy his Muslim base which has always seen Ataturk’s decision as catastrophic.
The decision to reverse its designation could be taken simply by Erdogan. However, intense international pressure - from Washington to Moscow - to maintain the building as a museum has seen his government prefer to share the burden of the decision with the judiciary.
Following the court’s ruling, Erdogan’s government still needs to take the actual steps to make the necessary changes in the building to open it for public prayers.
Hours before the court issued the verdict, UNESCO released a statement warning the Turkish government that it has certain responsibilities for the building under its World Heritage status.
"This inscription entails a number of legal commitments and obligations,” the statement said.  "Thus, a state must ensure that no modification is made to the outstanding universal value of the property inscribed on its territory. Any modification requires prior notification by the state concerned to UNESCO and then, if necessary, examination by the World Heritage Committee.”
The government intends to preserve the building’s valuable frescos and mosaics by using a curtain system to veil them during the time of prayers. Islam bans iconography in places of worship.
Some other religious experts, including the former head of Islamic authority in Turkey, said that the building could be used as a mosque without any amendments because the mosaics were placed too high and the worshippers wouldn’t be able to see them.
The Turkish public’s feelings about the Hagia Sophia are mixed. Kemal Kilicdaroglu, chairman of the main opposition party, the CHP, said in a statement earlier this week that it would not stand in the way, while other parties have been considerably muted in their criticism of the move.
Several surveys indicate that the move to convert the Hagia Sophia is popular among citizens across party lines, however, a plurality - 43.8 percent according to the latest poll by Metropoll conducted in June - believes the government is using the issue to distract the public from deteriorating economic conditions.
Under Erdogan, the Turkish government has reconverted four other Byzantine-era churches named Hagia Sophia in the cities of Trabzon, Kirklareli, Iznik and Edirne.