Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Sunday voiced the possibility of converting Hagia Sophia, which has been used as a museum since 1935, back into a mosque.
Speaking on national television broadcaster TGRT HABER, the Turkish President voiced the possibility of opening and renaming Istanbul’s Hagia Sofia museum as a mosque.
“After the election, entry to Hagia Sophia may be free of charge. We can open Hagia Sofia, not as a museum, but as a mosque,” said Mr Erdogan, who is a former mayor of Istanbul and is campaigning for votes for his Justice and Development Party (AKP) ahead of municipal elections on 31 March.
Asked whether the entrance fee to the city landmark might be waived, he said: “It’s not impossible… but we would not do it under the name ‘museum’ but ‘Hagia Sophia mosque’.”
“This is not unlikely. We might even change its name to Ayasofya Mosque,” Mr Erdogan said.
“Tourists come and go at the Blue Mosque. Do they pay anything? … Well, we will do the same with Hagia Sofia.”
The statement has been slammed by Greece, and the timing couldn’t be more wrong, considering the comment was made on the eve of the celebration marking the 198th anniversary of the outbreak of the Greek Revolution in 1821.
“This is not a strange proposal,” he said referring to calls to convert the Byzantine building to a mosque which is what it served as for hundreds of years after the city of Constantinople was sacked by the Ottomans.
“As you know, the mosque was converted to a museum in 1935, as a reflection of CHP mentality. We may as well take a step and change that,” he concluded, pointing to the harshly secularist policies of the 1930’s Republican People’s Party (CHP), which is the main opposition today.