Turkey turns Istanbul's world-famous museum into a mosque

Turkey turns Istanbul's world-famous museum into a mosque

Turkey has converted Haya Sophia, a world-famous museum in Istanbul, into a mosque.

Turkey's top administrative court on Friday revoked the status of the Haya Sophia Museum.

Soon after, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced the installation as a mosque open to Muslims.

Haya Sophia was built in the sixth century by order of the Byzantine emperor Justinian I. It has been one of the major religious centers of Orthodox Christians for nearly a thousand years since then.

When Istanbul became part of the Ottoman Empire in 1453, the structure was converted into a mosque. It was turned into a museum by Mustafa Kemal Atat কামrk, the first president of Turkey almost five hundred years later.

The museum is again a mosque, according to an administrative court ruling. The court ruled, "It has been concluded that the installation was allotted as a mosque. It is not legally possible to use it as anything other than that. ”

The decision to convert Turkey's Haya Sophia into a mosque was taken

"The decision of the cabinet to stop using it as a mosque and use it as a museum in 1934 is not legal."

President Erdogan called on the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) to turn the World Heritage Site into a mosque at an election rally last year.

Islamists in Turkey have long demanded that the site be converted back into a mosque, but secularists have opposed it.

Moreover, UNESCO urged Turkey not to change its status without consulting them. The United States also favored the use of Haya Sophia as a museum.

Turkish officials, however, declined to comment on the change. "It's up to us to decide what to do with our property," he said.

The first call to prayer was made from Haya Sophia Mosque on Friday. It is also broadcast on all news channels in Turkey.

However, the Russian Orthodox Church immediately protested the decision to convert Haya Sophia into a mosque, saying the Turkish court had not taken their concerns into account and that the decision could lead to further divisions.