After 86 years, the restrictions of Hagia Sophia were broken and its doors opened for worship, after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Friday signed the decision to reopen the Hagia Sophia Mosque to Muslim worshipers, in one of the most important decisions in modern Turkish history.

Earlier on Friday, the Turkish judiciary issued a ruling canceling the 1934 cabinet decision to convert the Hagia Sophia mosque into a museum.

On the second of July, a higher administrative court in Istanbul held a special session to consider the case, which ended with the announcement of a final decision in the case within a maximum of 15 days, which was issued today, Friday.

Hagia Sophia is a unique artistic and architectural monument, located in Sultanahmet district of Istanbul.

The edifice has been used as a mosque for 481 years since Sultan Mehmed the Conqueror opened the city of Constantinople, and it was converted into a museum in 1934 during the reign of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, and the Hagia Sophia is considered one of the most important architectural monuments in the history of the Middle East.

A popular demand
On the domestic front, talk of the return of life to Hagia Sophia was absolutely supported by public opinion, especially the Islamists, who took good notice of this decision, as thousands gathered with Hagia Sophia as soon as the decision to open it was issued.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan previously stated that Turkey plans to "restore the Hagia Sophia to its origin, not just make it free, and this means that it will not become a museum, and will be called a mosque", and stressed that the issue of converting the Hagia Sophia into a mosque is a demand that our people and the Muslim world aspire to That is, it is a requirement for everyone, and our people have longed for a mosque.

Yawuz Salim Kiran, Turkish Deputy Foreign Minister, said in a previous statement that his country will continue to protect cultural and religious heritage, stressing that "any decision on Hagia Sophia is a Turkish internal matter."

For his part, Turkish presidential spokesman Ibrahim said that opening the Hagia Sophia for worship does not detract from his global historical identity, indicating that more people can visit him.

Earlier, the Armenian Patriarch in Turkey, Smash Mashalian, called for the opening of the Hagia Sophia Museum for worship, and turning it into a symbol of human peace.

"I think it would be appropriate for the instinct of the place to see the ranks of believers prostrating in respect and reverence, instead of curious tourists who rush from one place to another in order to take pictures," he said, calling for a place within the Hagia Sophia to be devoted to Christian worship, so that it would be a symbol of human peace.


In 2016, a party dispute raised one of the associations concerned with the protection of Islamic heritage. The issue of reopening the Hagia Sophia for worship again brought to the Turkish judiciary, and with the approaching date of the ruling approaching, it turned into an issue of public opinion and the government's hints of Turkey’s right to return the museum to its mosque, and allow the call to be raised in more than Suitable and reading Surat Al-Fath in the building on the occasion of the anniversary of the opening of Istanbul this year.

The happiness parties, the new welfare, and the Grand Union support the move by the ruling Justice and Development Party and its ally the National Movement Party, whose president, Dolat Bahceli, confirmed that the voice of the call to prayer will be heard in Hagia Sophia and not the bells, in response to European objections to the move.

On the other hand, the parties of the Republican people, the good and the future, see this as an unaccounted maneuver for the consequences by the Justice and Development Party to compensate for the votes lost in the municipal elections, warning of the danger of manipulating the feelings of citizens and employing religion in politics.

Istanbul Mayor Akram Imamoglu participated in a conference in Greece in which he expressed his position that there is no need to open the Hagia Sophia as a mosque.

Western anger
As for the external level, the decision has caused a state of discontent and public anger within many European capitals, leading Greece, the traditional opponent of Turkey, the scene of rejection, where the Greek Ministry of Culture said that "the Turkish decision to convert the Hagia Sophia into a mosque represents an outright provocation of the civilized world." .

Earlier, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo had called on the Turkish government not to change the status of Hagia Sophia, in addition to the major Greek protests, in exchange for a Turkish position saying that "the decision is sovereign and no party has the right to interfere in it."

For its part, according to the agency Tass news agency that the Orthodox Church in Russia, expressed on Friday regret that the Turkish judiciary did not pay their concerns interest and spent the illegality of the transfer of Hagia Mosque Sophia in Istanbul Museum according to a government decree due to the thirties of the twentieth century, and said that "the decision could spark greater divisions ".

The will of Al-Fateh
In this context, Turkish historian Selim Akdogan assured Al-Jazeera Net that opening the doors of the Hagia Sophia for worship is a common desire for all of us, which is the implementation of the commandment of Sultan Mehmed the Conqueror, adding, "The Hagia Sophia is the only mosque that is being entered for a fee, and the law requires the removal of this disgraceful matter."

He pointed out that Greece, Russia and others ignore the fact that the Hagia Sophia and the surrounding region are owned and controlled by the Turkish state, according to the text of the Endowment Document, which states that Sultan Al-Fatih bought it from its owners, so that Muslims could perform the prayer in it, as there was no mosque in which they resided. Praying in the aftermath of the Istanbul conquest.

He explained that Al-Fateh refused to pay its value from the Muslims ’money house, and he insisted on paying the full price of his free money to the Orthodox monks, to then convert it to a mosque, and stop it and the lands surrounding it and the buildings on it for the benefit of Muslims in all parts of the Islamic world, a document that is still Reserved in its original condition, in the Turkish Documents and Arguments Department.

Akdogan expressed his surprise that the Greek government does not see any disregard or provocation for Muslims when its media calls the name of Constantinople to Istanbul when it deals with an order pertaining to the city, whose name changed after the Islamic conquest to Islam of Paul, meaning the city of Islam, which is the name that has been transformed in the public tongues into Istanbul.