The Turkish President quoted a poem whose writer was executed because of her longing for Hagia Sophia in the eyes of Turkish literature

Shortly after the Turkish Supreme Administrative Court's decision to cancel the status of a museum, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan signed a decree converting the Hagia Sophia into a mosque, and addressed the Turkish people in a speech in which he cited the late Turkish poet Osman Yuksel Serdinci, who was sentenced to death in the early 1980s because of his struggle Hagia Sophia to reopen an inclusive mosque.

He politicizes a politician, journalist, poet and editor-in-chief of the magazine from which he acquired his last name (Srdingchi) and issued 33 issues during his imprisonment, and was famous for defending himself in the court that sentenced him to death, and told the prosecution body: "The prosecutor brought this case to the wrong place and it would have been better if he had sent The file to Greece .. This comparison drives me crazy ... It seems as if I see a representative of Athens and not a Muslim Turkey in the prosecution in this country that survived the effort of religion and faith, the country of martyrs and veterans, why is the voice of our conscience, our faith and our history considered a crime? ".

In his famous poem from which Erdogan quotes, the Turkish poet says in the text of his judgment and executed because of him: “Hagia Sophia! O great temple, do not worry, the descendants of the conqueror will destroy all idols, turn you into a mosque, perform ablution with their tears, and make prostration between your walls, and the cheering and magnification will repeat among your domes. And this will be the second conquest, and the poets will write about the epics, and the call to prayer will again be heard and the sounds of enlargement from those silent orphan minarets, and the balconies of your minarets will glow in the lights in the sanctification of God and the honor of his prophet, so that people will think that the conqueror has resurrected again. The second will be resurrected after death. This is sure, do not worry, and these days are close, perhaps tomorrow or closer to tomorrow. "

Aya Sofia

In his televised speech after the signing of the decision to transform the Hagia Sophia into a mosque, the Turkish president said, "The Hagia Sophia has enjoyed a place among writers and poets. The Turkish diplomat and poet Yahya Kemal Beyatli previously wrote an article in 1922, in which he said: This country has two moral foundations: the first of them The call to prayer from the minarets of Hagia Sophia is still ringing, and the second is the recitation of the Holy Qur’an in front of the noble rag (the apostle of the Holy Prophet in the Palace of Topkapi in Istanbul) and it still shines.

He added, "Most thoughtful artists and artists wrote about the issue of what has become of things in Hagia Sophia, by denying them the worship."

What was written in this regard are poems written by Turkish writers, who sang the Hagia Sophia by making it an icon for the conquest of Istanbul, such as Turkish writer, poet and thinker Naguib Fadel Kassakurk, when he said, "Those who have fears that the Turks will remain in this country ... are the same people who have doubts about reopening Ayah Sofia to worship again. "

And from the poetry of Nazim Hekmat when he sang the conquest of Istanbul, saying, "He glorified the anticipated days of Islam / Istanbul became Turkish, after Constantinople Rum / opened Istanbul in 8 weeks and 3 days / Sultan of Turkey, riding his wild horse / and at the head of an army that defied the world, entered from the door Edirne / Blessed is that blessed servant of God / the Sultan who conquered the good town / the truth bestowed upon us the greatest of his blessings / and established the afternoon prayer in Hagia Sophia.

Also, the Turkish national historian and poet Nihal Atsez said when asked: If you come to the world again, what do you want to become? He answered, "I want to be the imam of Hagia Sophia," according to the speech made by the Turkish president.

Likewise, the Turkish international historian Khalil Aynaliguq, when he said that 'the West has never forgotten the conquest of Istanbul or the Hagia Sophia', and he meant that the issue of the Hagia Sophia and the conquest went beyond being a political issue.

In this regard, the Turkish novelist Bayami also said that "converting the Hagia Sophia into a museum did not undermine the Christian aspirations towards Istanbul, on the contrary, it increased its boldness and its keenness."

"There is no doubt that the best poetry written about Hagia Sophia is by the Turkish poet Nihal Asya," Erdogan said.

Criticism of a previous decision

In his speech, Erdogan criticized the Cabinet Resolution of 1934 to transform the Hagia Sophia Mosque into a museum, saying, "During the years in which the Hagia Sophia was closed to worship, it was subjected to great injustice. They demolished the Hagia Sophia School, the school that Sultan Mehmed the Conqueror built alongside the building, It was considered the first Ottoman university, without reason, and then they cut the rare carpets furnished on its floor, distributed it right and left, and took the old candles to the foundry to melt it down.

Likewise, the paintings are still in place, and they were initially placed in warehouses because they could not get them out of the door because of their large size, and they were put in place again at a later time during the Democratic Party. "

He continued, "The destruction suffered by the Hagia Sophia is not limited to this, for those who do not want anything from the Hagia Sophia to remain when he was a mosque, almost destroyed even his minarets, because the small minaret of Hagia Sophia, which was converted into a mosque during the reign of Sultan Bayezid II, was destroyed between Overnight without any legal basis. "

When the historian, journalist, and musician Ibrahim Hakki Konyali saw that the role was coming on Hagia Sophia, he published a report immediately in which he said that these minarets are considered to support the dome of the mosque, and if these minarets are destroyed, then Hagia Sophia will also be destroyed, and then they canceled the destruction forced, according to Erdogan.

There is no doubt that many mosques and schools were subject to similar disasters during the same period, according to the speech of the Turkish President, who said that "the decision to return the Hagia Sophia Mosque is considered a new mission for him to live in the place, after times and times in which he witnessed a revival since the date of its establishment."

Erdogan considered that the revival of the Hagia Sophia is a gesture that "we - as a Turkish nation, Muslims, and humanity as a whole - have what we are saying to the world that we are reminded again of all periods of our history, from the Battle of Badr (year 2 of migration) to the Battle of Malazir (1701) and from the Battle of Nicopolis (1396) ) To the hill of Qalaa (1915), and a symbol of our insistence on bearing the trusts of our martyrs and warriors, even if it costs us our souls. "

Erdogan concluded his speech stressing that the Hagia Sophia will always be open to all, and said, "We will open the mosque for worship while preserving its description of a common cultural heritage of humanity."