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The interim secretary common of the World Council of Churches has written to Turkey’s president expressing his “grief and dismay” over Turkey’s choice to alter the standing of Istanbul’s landmark Hagia Sophia from a museum to a mosque.
As a World Heritage museum, “Hagia Sophia has been a place of openness, encounter and inspiration for people from all nations,” Ioan Sauca stated within the letter launched Saturday by the Geneva-based group.
The colossal Hagia Sophia was constructed 1,500 years in the past as an Orthodox Christian cathedral and was transformed right into a mosque after the Ottomans conquered Constantinople, now Istanbul, in 1453. The secular Turkish authorities determined in 1934 to make it a museum.
Sauca stated the museum standing had been “a powerful expression” of Turkey’s dedication to inclusion and secularism.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Friday formally transformed the constructing again right into a mosque and declared it open for Muslim worship, hours after a excessive courtroom annulled the 1934 choice turning it right into a museum.
Erdogan, a religious Muslim, has steadily used the talk over Hagia Sophia to drum up assist for his Islamic-rooted celebration. The choice has provoked deep dismay amongst Orthodox Christians.
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