In a 10-year journey and wandering, the architect, Mohamed Amin Yilmaz, monitored the conversion of 329 ancient monuments in the Ottoman Empire to Turkey - most of which are mosques and mosques, in addition to hospices and shrines - to churches.

These milestones include the conversion of 117 universities in Bulgaria, in addition to 7 takkia, shrines and one school into churches, and the conversion of 74 universities, 19 mausoleums, charitable institutions and worshipers in Greece into churches, and Yilmaz was able to monitor and identify the mosques, mosques, takeaways and converted shrines, as well as minarets that were converted into towers For church bells.

Yilmaz's journey started from the Balkans, and then expanded his search in light of the information he obtained, according to his statement to Anatolia Agency. He said, "Initially it focused on Hungary, Bulgaria and Greece, because most of the buildings that were converted into churches are located in these three countries."

"After that, I wandered in Algeria, Ukraine, the Crimea, Georgia, Armenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Romanian (Greek) Cyprus, Croatia, Kosovo, Macedonia, Moldova, Romania and Serbia, where the total number of countries covered by the monitoring reached 18 including Turkey, and I identified 329 Turkish monuments that were converted to churches in dates Different. "

According to the spokesman, "In Bulgaria, 117 universities were added, in addition to 7 takkia, shrines and one school, to churches, 3 hourly towers were converted into church bells, and in Croatia 8 mosques were converted to churches, and in Crimea 6 mosques and mausoleums were converted to churches ".

"In Kosovo, one mosque was converted into a church, just as a clock tower was converted into a church bell, and in Ukraine two universities were converted to two churches, and a lighthouse was converted into a church tower, and in Macedonia 3 mosques, two shrines and an hour tower were converted to churches," Yilmaz added. In Serbia, 15 universities and two mausoleums have been converted into churches. "

He added, "One mosque in Georgia and Azerbaijan was converted to churches during the Russian occupation, and 3 mosques in Bosnia and Herzegovina during the Austrian occupation were converted to churches, and 3 mosques in Algeria during the French occupation of churches, and two universities in Armenia were converted to churches."

Yilmaz said, "In Roman (Greek) Cyprus, a path has been converted into a church, while in Moldova 4 mosques have been converted into churches, while 5 in Romania have been converted into churches."

He pointed out that "in Hungary 23 universities and 5 shrines and schools were converted to churches, and all the mentioned buildings were converted into churches in Hungary during the Austrian occupation."

Greece

Yilmaz explained that many of the "existing monuments so far" of the 329 relics that have been converted are found in Greece.

He said that 74 universities, 19 shrines, charitable foundations, and prayers in Greece were converted into churches, noting that 5 beacons were converted into church towers, then the number of Turkish architectural buildings that were converted in Greece became 101 ″.

Engineer Yilmaz explained that the Turkish monuments were changed due to political and spatial reasons. He said, "The huge Turkish memorial buildings in the city center - especially the minarets - are seen as the first target that should be destroyed because they symbolize Turkish hegemony and therefore Islam. This is very sad." 7 minarets of dynamite were demolished in Sofia in 1878 in one night.

As for the other pretext, which is the spatial need, Yilmaz pointed out that the existing mosques were converted to churches due to the need of the Orthodox Christians who settled the villages, especially after they were evacuated from the Turks during population exchanges.

According to Yilmaz, there are other Islamic buildings other than mosques that were converted into churches, and he pointed out that "mosques are the most buildings that have been converted into churches, and I have identified 272 universities and mosques that have been converted, and unlike the mosques there are 36 hospices and mausoleums that have been converted into churches, as well as That there are towers that have been converted into church towers, and lighthouses on which church bells have been placed. "

"A tower in Croatia, a façade in the Roman Cyprus and a platform in the chapel in Greece were converted into places of Orthodox worship, and in Serbia a church was created inside one of the cells from which the four walls were left."

The conversion of the hospices to churches

Yilmaz pointed out that the hospices were also converted into churches, and that "the hospice of the mask of Baba in the province of Dibruga - in which a Turkish majority lived in Romania - has become a church today, and there is an interesting thing is the tekaya, which was a common shrine for Muslims and Christians, these hospices turned In complete silence to the churches after the migration of Muslims from this region. "

He revealed that he had examined the buildings that he reached to this day in the places where they are located, and added, "In all the buildings that were converted into churches, I found that all the features of Turkish architecture such as domes, belts and decorations were wiped out, and the architectural characteristics were changed so that they cannot be recognized."

"However, regardless of the extent of its transformation, the main walls in it make it possible to reveal the churches that were mosques in the past."

I went to visit the zoo in Budapest, Hungary, and as soon as I arrived, I found a great majestic mosque in the Ottoman style in front of me, and he and the garden around him were converted into a zoo, and inside the mosque they made shelter for the elephants
Khaled Abu Amne # Hagia_sofia pic.twitter. com / Kw1jbwZR11

- Qutaiba Yassin (@ k7ybnd99) July 13, 2020

Impact assessment

Yilmaz explained that the Turks did not change the architectural characteristics of the buildings that they converted into mosques, and that there are no other peoples that treat the architectural buildings with respect as much as we deal with them, because we - the Turks - did not have any psychological barrier with our previous civilizations, and therefore we did not interfere with the features The architecture of the buildings that we converted into mosques. "

"The best example of this is the Hagia Sophia Mosque. We have preserved it from 1453 until now, and we have only added to it the mihrab, minbar and minaret without interfering with the characteristics of the building designed as a church."

"When you look at the architectural impact from the outside, you can easily understand that it was a church in the past, and the situation inside is also like this except for some of the drawings that were covered because they were up to the eye level, while the Europeans change all the architectural characteristics of the mosques that They turned them into churches. "

Archaeological buildings and their documentation

Yilmaz indicated that he undertook an extensive archival research and reached a large part of the endowments of buildings that proved to be converted to churches through research in the General Endowments Directorate and the Ottoman Archives.

"I then matched these buildings with their own endowments, and added their own nicknames. My goal in this archival research was to record the Turkish monumental buildings with documents. In the past years, lawsuits have been filed regarding some of the mosques in Bulgaria that were confiscated by the state despite From being registered waqf buildings, the Fatwa Commission for these mosques has already recovered. "

Yilmaz explained that he had seen some of the antiquities in the books and articles of some of the personalities that had dealt with this subject before in Turkey, such as the late Akram Hakki Ayurdi and Professor Dr. Samawy Aiyjah, but he pointed out at the same time that there was no extensive study covering all the geographical areas that were under the rule Ottoman Empire.

He said that he collected his works in a 575-page book presented to him by Professor Dr. Samawi Aijeh in 2017, and that he followed in the manner and style of this book the origins of Ayurdi.

And the architect, Mohamed Amin Yilmaz, has researches related to the Turkish architectural monuments for nearly 20 years, and he participated in many restoration projects inside and outside Turkey.

Yilmaz founded the Turkish Architectural Research Center to convert his work related to Turkish architectural monuments into an institutional structure, and he is now in the process of printing his book called "Turkish Architectural Buildings Converted to Churches" which represents the result and fruit of his research that he conducted between 2010 and 2020.