MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 24th July, 2020) The Russian Orthodox Church considers the change of status of the Hagia Sophia cathedral in Turkey from museum to mosque premature and politically-motivated, a source in the Russia's clergy told Sputnik on Friday.
On July 10, Turkey's top administrative court, the Council of State, annulled a 1934 decree designating Istanbul-located Hagia Sophia a museum. Immediately after, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan signed a decree to convert the cathedral into a mosque and allow Muslim prayers in it. The first prayer took place in Hagia Sophia earlier on Friday.
"We strongly regret that numerous calls of local Orthodox churches, including Russia's, were left with no response by the Turkish authorities. We regret that this decision was made prematurely, with no necessity, and immediately implemented. We see no other logic behind this decision but political," the Russian Orthodoxy representative said.
The source opined that such moves in no way contribute to peace and stability.
"We believe that the more politicized the issues pertaining to faith and worldview get, the less room remains for religious diversity and mutual respect among representatives of different religions to play their role in strengthening peace and stability," the representative added.
Hagia Sophia was founded by Christian emperor Justinian and inaugurated on December 27, 537. The cathedral, considered the epitome of Byzantine architecture, was the world's largest Christian cathedral for over a thousand years. After the Ottomans captured Constantinople and the Byzantine Empire fell in 1453, Hagia Sophia was converted into a mosque. In 1934, when Turkey was already a republic, it was designated a museum and included on UNESCO's World Heritage List.
UNESCO Director-General Audrey Azoulay has responded to the conversion by saying that she "deeply regretted" the fact that Ankara made the decision "without prior discussion."
