ISTANBUL (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 24th July, 2020) Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan arrived on Friday at Istanbul's Hagia Sophia, which was recently turned from a museum into a mosque, to attend the first Muslim prayer there since 1934, a Sputnik correspondent reported from the scene.
Earlier in the day, Istanbul Governor Ali Yerlikaya said that access to the Hagia Sophia area is fully closed due to a large crowd of worshippers and COVID-19 fears.
The Turkish leader's cortege stopped at Hagia Sophia. It is expected that Erdogan will take part in the prayer, after which he will make a statement.
Hagia Sophia was built as an Orthodox Christian cathedral by Byzantine emperor Justinian and opened its doors to believers in 537, remaining the world's largest Christian temple for over a thousand years until Constantinople was captured by the Ottoman Empire and renamed Istanbul in the 15th century. Hagia Sophia was converted into a mosque in 1453. It then became a museum under Turkey's secular leader Mustafa Kemal Ataturk in 1934. That status was revoked by a Turkish court on July 10, with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan decreeing that Hagia Sophia would become a mosque once again.
