![Observers say President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's recent public endorsements to reconvert the building into a mosque have been a political ploy to distract attention from other issues [File: Murad Sezer/Reuters]](https://www.lahoreinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/observers-say-president-recep-tayyip-erdogans-rec.jpeg)
Turkey’s Hagia Sophia and the battle to reconvert it to a mosque
From a symbol of Christendom after its establishment by Byzantine emperor Justinian I in the sixth century, to an emblem of the Muslim Ottoman Empire’s sprawling influence, the Hagia Sophia has been at the heart of a centuries-old ideological and political battle.
After Fatih Sultan Mehmed II conquered Constantinople in 1453 and brought the city – which later became known as Istanbul – into the fold of Islam, he converted the Hagia Sophia from a cathedral to a mosque.
For hundreds of years, Muslim worshippers from around the world flocked to the city’s red-coloured architectural jewel to perform their daily prayers as it stood high with its imposing grey dome and towering minarets.
But in the early 1930s, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the founder of the modern Turkish republic, closed the mosque and turned the building into a museum as part of his drive to secularise and modernise the country. Calls to reconvert the Hagia Sophia, also known as the Ayasofya, back into a mosque have since been on the rise.
Growing sharper in recent years, the demand came mostly from Turkey’s religious-leaning and nationalist constituencies, many of whom regularly demonstrated at the gates of the Hagia Sophia every May 29, the anniversary of the Ottoman conquest of Constantinople.
But such calls have been vehemently opposed by Greece and the United States, which argue that the heritage site – recognised by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) since 1985 – should remain a museum out of respect for the country’s Christian minority and world history.
‘Aura of legitimacy’
On Thursday, Turkey’s highest court convened to decide the status of the Hagia Sophia following a petition by a private association to examine the validity of Ataturk’s 1934 decree that converted it into a museum.
The Council of State evaluated the case and is expected to announce its decision within 15 days.
Although previous lawsuits to change the status of the museum have failed, lawmakers say a court decision is only symbolic.
“The court’s favourable decision could provide an aura of legitimacy to the museum’s conversion into a mosque, but it is not a prerequisite,” said Aykan Erdemir, senior director of the Turkey Program at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and a former parliamentarian.
The former Turkish lawmaker added that President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s opinion on the matter was, on the other hand, key to the final status of the building.