Erdogan celebrates the conquest of Istanbul by the Ottomans in 1453 against a backdrop of controversy

Text by: Anne Andlauer

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's Turkey celebrated on May 29 the 567th anniversary of the Ottoman conquest of Istanbul in 1453. The authorities had planned, as every year, a full day of festivities. With, as the high point of this day, an event as symbolic as it is controversial: a recitation of the Koran within the walls of Hagia Sophia in Istanbul.

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From our correspondent in Istanbul,

It is not the reconversion into a mosque that the supporters of the Turkish president are clamoring for, but it is a sign that will not fail to encourage them.

For the anniversary of the capture of Constantinople, an imam therefore recited sura 48 of the Qur'an, Al-Fath, "the brilliant victory", then a prayer celebrating the conquest, between the walls of Hagia Sophia, which is nevertheless a museum since 1934. President Erdogan wanted it so, he who does not hide his dream of opening this old Byzantine church to Muslim worship. It remained so for almost a thousand years, before the Ottoman conquest, which made it a mosque until the fall of the Empire.

In recent times, Turkish power has multiplied the symbols. At the end of March, a muezzin recited the call to prayer in a bare voice under the dome of the monument, officially for "acoustic tests". In early May, it was the president's communications director who shared a photo of Hagia Sophia on Twitter with this caption: "Still a little patience".

In March 2019, in the middle of an electoral campaign, Recep Tayyip Erdogan had promised to rename the building “Sainte-Sophie mosque”.

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• Recep Tayyip Erdogan
• Turkey