Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has signed a presidential order to convert the historic Hagia Sofia building from a museum to a mosque. Following the presidential order, Hagia Sofia’s museum ceased to exist and was taken over by the Department of Religious Affairs.
Turkey’s Supreme Judicial Council of State has ruled that the government’s decision of November 24, 1934, to remove the building from its mosque status and turn it into a museum is unconstitutional. The building, located in Istanbul, was built in the sixth century during the reign of the Byzantine king, and for almost 1,000 years it was the largest church in the world. After the conquest of Istanbul in 1453, the Ottoman Empire converted it into a mosque and it remained a mosque for almost 500 years, but in 1934 it was turned into a museum during the reign of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the founder of modern Turkey. The building is currently on the United Nations World Heritage List.
