Erdogan to offer prayers in Hagia Sophia today after historic mosque reconversion

El presidente turco, Erdogan, ordenó la reapertura del lugar de culto musulmán después de que un tribunal turco superior revocó el estado del monumento del siglo VI como museo el 10 de julio. Foto: Archivo

Turkish President Erdogan will offer Friday prayers at Hagia Sophia today, a few days after a landmark decision by a Turkish court ruled that the monument could be reopened for Muslim worship.

A superior court in Turkey revoked the status of the 6th-century monument as a museum on July 10, and then Erdogan ordered the building to reopen for Muslim worship, deeply enraging the Christian community and further straining relations with Greece. , NATO's ally.

The UNESCO World Heritage site in historic Istanbul was first built as a cathedral in the Byzantine Christian Empire but became a mosque after the Ottoman conquest of Constantinople in 1453. Some 3.8 million tourists visited the museum last year.

The State Council, the highest administrative court, unanimously canceled a 1934 decision by Turkey's modern founder, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, to make it a museum, saying it was listed as a mosque in his property deeds.

Turkey's head of religious affairs director Ali Erbas said on Wednesday that up to 1,000 people could participate in Friday's prayer, which will be preceded by a recital from the Holy Quran.

Leaders and officials from several Muslim-majority countries, including Qatar and Azerbaijan, were invited, Turkish media reported.

About 20,000 security forces will be in the area to ensure that the first prayer is carried out without incident.

Architects and builders had been working around the clock to meet Friday's deadline, with scaffolding visible inside the monument and a turquoise carpet placed for the faithful to pray.

Some experts are concerned about the speed of the conversion.

"(Two weeks) does not allow enough time to adequately consult with experts, deliberate, debate, and develop a sustainable strategy to preserve Hagia Sophia for future generations," Tugba Tanyeri Erdemir of the University of Pittsburgh told AFP.

"Expedited steps can cause irreversible damage to this World Heritage site and its spectacular art," added Erdemir.

Erdogan's spokesman Ibrahim Kalin promised last Sunday that authorities "would avoid damaging the building's frescoes, icons, and historic architecture."

Byzantine mosaics, plastered for centuries when the building served as a mosque in the Ottoman Empire, will be hidden with curtains during times of prayer as figurative depictions are prohibited by Islam.

"Not a single nail will be driven in," Erbas promised.

Erdogan's decision has undone part of Ataturk's secular legacy, which wanted Hagia Sophia as a museum to "offer it to humanity".