Turkish President to offer Friday prayers at the Hagia Sophia Mosque on July 24

Regular five-time prayers to commence the Hagia Sophia Mosque from Friday, July 24 and the Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan will also offer Friday prayers at Hagia Sophia.

It should be noted that the Turkish Religious Authority Honesty said that Christian symbols would be properly veiled during prayer times.

Last week, the Turkish Supreme Court ruled in Ankara that “the site was designated for a mosque, so it is not legally possible to use it for any other purpose.”

The decision, citing a decision signed by the founder of modern Turkey, Kemal Ataturk, said that “the removal of the mosque by the cabinet in 1934 and declaring it a museum did not fall under the law.”

After which, on July 11, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced the restoration of the Hagia Sophia Mosque after a court decision and opening it for prayers.

The building, built in the sixth century, has been open to the public since the museum was built in 1935, regardless of popular beliefs.

An important destination for tourists from all over the world, Hagia Sofia was first built as a church in the Christian Byzantine Empire but has been converted into a mosque since the Ottoman Empire’s conquest of Constantinople in 1453.

After which Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the secular founder of modern Turkey, turned the Sofia Mosque into a museum in the early days of his reign.

Last year, the Turkish president had said that turning Sofia into a museum was a “big mistake.”

However, Greece condemned the move as provocative, while France expressed outrage and the United States expressed annoyance.

Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grishko has said that Moscow regrets the decision. The Russian Orthodox Church has said it regrets that the court did not take into account the concerns and that the decision could lead to major differences. ۔

The World Council of Churches has called on Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to reverse his decision to convert the Sofia Museum into a mosque.

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