Istanbul: Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan signed a decree to use Hagia Sophia as a mosque. The move came after a Turkish court revoked the site’s 80-year-old status as a museum and provoked an international furor.
The country’s top administrative court ruled on Friday. The World Heritage site, which has operated as a museum since 1934,can be converted into a mosque.
Built in the sixth century as a cathedral, Hagia Sophia stands as the greatest example of Byzantine Christian architecture in the world. It was last used as a mosque But it has been a source of Christian-Muslim rivalry. having stood at the center of Christendom for nearly a millennium and then, after being conquered, of the Muslim Ottoman Empire.
UNESCO (@UNESCO) clearing its stand on the move Tweeted:
The inscription entails a number of legal commitments and obligations.
Official statement on it
Hagia Sophia, part of the property “Historic Areas of Istanbul,” is inscribed on the #WorldHeritage List as a museum.
The inscription entails a number of legal commitments and obligations.
More: https://t.co/337lhrFZUw pic.twitter.com/vfxCsQQGRT— UNESCO (@UNESCO) July 10, 2020
Turkey’s court has overturned a cabinet ruling from 1934 & allowed for the conversion of Hagia Sophia into a mosque. It had been President Erdogan’s campaign pledges during Istanbul municipal elections converting the monument from a museum to a mosque been last year.
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