MOSCOW/ISTANBUL (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 24th July, 2020) The first Muslim prayer in 86 years at Istanbul's Hagia Sophia, recently converted from a museum to a mosque, was attended by over 350,000 worshipers but was met with different reactions ranging from joy inside Turkey to condemnation from Orthodox Christian-majority countries.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who said that Turkish authorities have fixed a historical mistake made in 1934 by annulling a presidential decree that made Hagia Sophia a museum, was among the worshipers on Friday and recited verses from the Quran before the start of the first prayer.
Istanbul Governor Ali Yerlikaya said that access to the Hagia Sophia area had to be fully closed due to a large crowd of worshipers amid COVID-19 fears.
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 That status was revoked by a Turkish court on July 10, with Erdogan decreeing that Hagia Sophia would become a mosque once again.
The move to convert the former cathedral to a mosque was not particularly welcomed abroad. France, Austria, and the United States were among the countries that expressed regrets over Ankara's decision, and the Holy See decried the conversion as well. Countries where the majority of the population is Orthodox Christian, including Greece and Cyprus, also called on Ankara to keep the museum status of the UNESCO World Heritage site. Turkey views the matter as its internal affair.
PAYING RESPECT TO OTTOMAN TRADITIONS
On Thursday, Ali Erbas, the head of Turkey's religious authority, said that three imams and five muezzins, who are responsible for reciting calls for prayers, were appointed for Hagia Sophia.
The appointed imams include Mehmet Boynukalin, a professor of Islamic law at Istanbul's Marmara University, Ferruh Mustuer and Bunjamin Topcuoglu, who previously have been serving as imams of two other Istanbul-based mosques.
After Erdogan recited verses from the Quran, four muezzins from the mosque's four minarets made a call to the Friday prayer.
Soon afterward, Erbas said the first sermon with a sword in his hands and thus revived an Ottoman-era tradition, while Erdogan visited the tomb of Ottoman Sultan Mehmed II, the conqueror of Istanbul, following the prayer.
In his Friday speech, the Turkish leader said that the Hagia Sophia was the cultural heritage of the whole humanity, adding that it was simply reverted back into the mosque. Erdogan added that Turkey's Culture and Tourism Ministry would conduct restoration works so Hagia Sophia would gain a "more meaningful structure."
During the prayer, Hagia Sophia Christian mosaics and frescoes were covered with curtains. A Sputnik correspondent reported that they were kept hidden after the prayer ended.
Turkey's decision to make Hagia Sophia a mosque was welcomed by several Muslim countries, religious officials and organizations, including the Palestinian Hamas movement and the Muslim Brotherhood group (banned in Russia).
The Grand Mufti of Oman, Ahmed bin Hamad al-Khalili, has hailed Erdogan for reopening Hagia Sophia as a mosque while Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev congratulated the Turkish leader following the first prayers at the place of worship. In addition, Abbas Mousavi, a spokesman for the Iranian Foreign Ministry, has said Tehran was happy to see the opening of Hagia Sophia for Muslim prayers.
At the same time, a number of officials and Orthodox Christian religious leaders condemned the move.
Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis and Patriarch Theodore II of the Greek Orthodox Church have expressed regret over Ankara's decision during a Friday meeting, and Mitsotakis called Hagia Sophia's change of status a "proof of weakness" of Turkey. Meanwhile, European Commission (EC) Vice President Margaritis Schinas, who represents Greece at the EC leadership, said, when asked about Muslim prayers at Hagia Sophia, that he felt "anger."
According to Greek media, US President Donald Trump on Friday also expressed his strong dissatisfaction over the issue during a meeting with Archbishop Elpidophoros, the head of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America.
In addition, church bells rang to mourn the change of status of Hagia Sophia in several countries, including Greece, Cyprus and Montenegro.
A source in Russia's clergy told Sputnik on Friday that the Russian Orthodox Church considers the conversion of Hagia Sophia to a mosque to be a premature and politically-motivated decision.
Moreover, Marwan Abou Fadel, the secretary-general of the Lebanese Orthodox Gathering, told Sputnik that the Christian community of Lebanon was against the change of Hagia Sophia's status and was hoping that the decision would be reversed.
DIFFERENT OPINIONS INSIDE TURKEY
Despite the 350,000-strong crowd which gathered to attend the first prayer at the Hagia Sophia, some Turkish citizens consider converting a museum to a mosque a pullback from secularity which was introduced during Ataturk times.
A local official in Ankara told a Sputnik correspondent that museum status was satisfying for all religious communities and changing Hagia Sophia's status would be viewed in the world as a step towards "the Sharia regime."
Many Turks who opposed the decision also fear a negative reaction from the international community and its subsequent consequences.
"By taking a bright, loud step for the whole world to meet the demands of radical political groups of nationalists, the government is thus trying to divert attention from the real economic problems in the country and to hide from public dissatisfaction behind the populist curtain," an exchange office employee, who introduced himself as Hasan, told Sputnik.
At the same time, some Turkish citizens consider the decision a restoration of historical justice.
"We have been waiting for this for a long 86 years. Since the conquest of Istanbul by Fatih [Ottoman Sultan Fatih Sultan Mehmet], Hagia Sophia has been the main symbol of our victory, and finally, historical justice has been restored," Abdullah, a shop owner, said.
Many worshipers arrived to attend the first prayer from different provinces of Turkey, and some of them praised Erdogan for making Turkey "great again."
