ANKARA/ATHENS (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 25th July, 2020) Greece is instigating "hostility" toward Turkey and entire islam by overreacting to the Hagia Sophia conversion into a mosque, the Turkish Foreign Ministry's spokesman said on Saturday, decrying the burning of the country's national flag by Thessaloniki protesters.
The first Muslim prayer in 86 years was held in the building on Friday. It came after Turkey's top administrative court annulled a 1934 decree that made Istanbul-located Hagia Sophia a museum. The Greek leadership has strongly condemned the move. On Friday, Greeks took to the streets to protest the Muslim prayer in Hagia Sophia. At a rally in Thessaloniki, organized by a far-right group, protesters burnt the Turkish flag.
"Greece has once again demonstrated [its] hostility towards Islam and Turkey under the pretext of reacting to the opening of the Hagia Sophia Mosque to worship. We strongly condemn hostile statements made by members of the Greek Government and Parliament provoking the public opinion and allowing the burning of our glorious flag in Thessaloniki," Hami Aksoy said in a statement, posted on the ministry's website.
The official likened Greek authorities to "the spoiled children of Europe, who could not bear the image of believers prostrating themselves again in Hagia Sophia." He scolded them for "racist mindsets" and failure to draw lessons from history. Aksoy recalled that Greece is the only European country with no mosque in its capital
"No country can teach Turkey about exercising [its] national sovereignty. The Great Hagia Sophia Mosque, which is opened to worship in accordance with the will of the Turkish nation, belongs to Turkey like our other cultural assets in our land and it will be in our possession and protection forever," he stressed.
Hagia Sophia was founded by Byzantine Emperor Justinian as a cathedral and was opened in December 537. The cathedral, considered the epitome of Byzantine architecture, was one of the world's largest buildings for over a thousand years. After the capture of Constantinople by the Ottomans and the fall of the Byzantine Empire in 1453, the cathedral was converted into a mosque, but since 1934, the building, by a decree of the founder of the Republic of Turkey, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, became a museum.
The ruling to turn Hagia Sophia, which has been on UNESCO's list of World Heritage Sites, into a mosque has sparked mixed reactions. The Russian Orthodox Church has expressed its regret that Ankara ignored calls to preserve the site as a museum. Pope Francis has also said that he is "very saddened."
