Turning a museum into a mosque could be Erdogan’s biggest mistake

Turning the Hagia Sofia into a Mosque Is Both Wrong and Imprudent—and It Should Worry Israel

 
The Cathedral of St Sophia (meaning Holy Wisdom: Hagia Sophia to Greeks, Aya Sofia to Turks) is perhaps the greatest building to survive intact from the ancient world. Erected between 523 and 537, the Cathedral stood in Constantinople (now Istanbul) as a monument to the majesty of Christendom for nearly a thousand years. Then, in 1453, the capital of what we now call the Byzantine Empire fell to the Ottoman Turks. St Sophia was converted into a mosque; its mosaics were plastered over and minarets added. Four centuries later, Kemal Atatürk, the founder of modern Turkey, secularised the basilica in 1935. It has remained a museum ever since.

Until now, that is. By presidential decree, Tayyip Recep Erdogan has ordered that St Sophia is to revert to a mosque. It will, he insists, remain open to all — the Istanbul tourist trade depends on this magnet for 3.7 million visitors annually — but control of the basilica will be handed over to the Muslim authorities. At a stroke, the Turkish President has undone Attatük’s epoch-making work. St Sophia has been far more than a museum: as symbol of secularism, it represented tolerance not only for Turkey but for the Muslim world. From July 24, this meeting place for people of all faiths and none is to be monopolised by just one of the monotheistic religions.

In Geneva, the World Council of Churches expressed the “grief and dismay” of the Orthodox, Anglican and Protestant Christians that it represents. Like many other governments and organisations, the WCC begged the Turkish leader to reconsider his decision. Pope Francis put it more simply in his weekly address to pilgrims. “I am deeply pained,” he said.

Francis knows that papal appeals to Erdogan are usually in vain. In 2006 his predecessor Benedict XVI went on a mission to Turkey to ask the President to allow Christians to repair and maintain churches there, including places of pilgrimage. But Benedict’s appeal fell on deaf ears. Despite Erdogan’s boast that there are 435 churches and synagogues in Turkey, Christians and Jews there have faced discrimination and decline under his rule. In Greece, Christians have demonstrated against the Islamisation of St Sophia. But protests across the Orthodox world are simply ignored in Ankara.

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Πηγή: thearticle.com