Muslim Prayers at Hagia Sophia - A Sign Calling Us to Repent

Islamic prayers were recently held at the Hagia Sophia in former Constantinople in a televised event attended by Turkish officials and strongly condemned by the Greek Foreign Ministry. 

This is yet another highly symbolic event inked to this great and ancient church building, which we Orthodox Christians must respond to...

There has been a growing movement within Turkey for several years demanding the re-conversion into a mosque of Hagia Sophia — for centuries the greatest church in all of Christendom. The great church was turned into a mosque in 1453 after the Muslim Turks conquered Constantinople and subjugated the surviving Christian inhabitants. Following the defeat of the Ottoman empire in World War I, the new leader of the secular state of Turkey, Kemal Ataturk, in 1935 put a stop to Islamic prayers in Hagia Sophia, and had it converted into a museum.

Ever since Recep Tayyip Erdogan came to power in Turkey in 2003, calls for turning Hagia Sophia back into a functioning mosque have been steadily increasing. Following one such occurrence in May 2014, I wrote the following:

Muslim Prayers at Hagia Sophia - A Sign Calling Us to Repent 

Erdogan has set his sights on Hagia Sophia, to turn the once luminous church structure into a dark and oppressive mosque again. Such a symbolic achievement would appear to Muslims as a second conquering of Christendom, bolstering Erdogan's push to reinstitute the Islamic caliphate, with Turkey at its head. 

Islam must have such temporal victories and exert political and military domination in order to justify its existence, as Muhammad's successes in battle, culminating in his retaking of Mecca ten years after being driven out in weakness and disgrace, forever set the example for Muslims to follow. 

But worldly success and temporal victories and kingdoms are not the Christian way. 

Christians follow Jesus the Christ, the Son of the Living God, who "had no place to lay His head," who emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant, and who submitted Himself fully to the divine will of the Father, even to the point of death on the cross. Here we have no city, but are called to be pilgrims and aliens, journeying to our heavenly homeland. In the radical words of our Lord Jesus Christ, we are called to take up our cross and follow Him. As Fr Seraphim Rose put it:

"Let us not, who would be Christians, expect anything else from it than to be crucified. For to be a Christian is to be crucified, in this time and in any time since Christ came for the first time. 

"His life is the example—and warning—to us all. We must be crucified personally, mystically; for through crucifixion is the only path to resurrection. If we would rise with Christ, we must first be humbled with Him—even to the ultimate humiliation, being devoured and spit forth by the uncomprehending world. 

"And we must be crucified outwardly, in the eyes of the world; for Christ's Kingdom is not of this world, and the world cannot bear it, even in a single representation of it, even for a single moment."

If the Muslims convert Hagia Sophia into a mosque a second time, then we Christians must see in this God's providential will. If God allows the enemy to reconquer Christian symbols, then we must take it as a warning to not place our trust in mere symbols, but in the Real and True Son of God Himself. We must allow such calamities to spur us on to ever deepening faith and ever more fervent repentance.  

As Islam and the other forces of evil wage open warfare against Christ and His Church in these last times, we are called to be faithful to the end. And if we remain faithful, then, like the Lord, we shall find our victory mystically concealed in our Golgotha.

Scroll down for the latest news story in this drama which extends back to the early Islamic sieges of Constantinople...

Turkey assigns permanent imam to Hagia Sophia to lead daily prayers...

...Turns clock back to 1453 in second conquest of Constantinople. This is effectively a re-conversion of Hagia Sophia back into a functioning mosque after over 80 years.

"Observers are warning about Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s increasingly neo-Ottoman stance..." 

This new move by emboldened Islamic supremacist Erdogan will certainly have an impact on Turkey's relations with Russia, as Russia recently urged Turkey to return Hagia Sophia to the Orthodox Church.

Might this be an unfolding of Elder Paisios' prophecy of a war between Russia and Turkey?

Hagia Sophia gets permanent imam as tensions rise in Aegean
Ekathimerini, October 22, 2016:

Dark clouds over Hagia Sophia...

A few months after a controversial decision by Turkish authorities to allow readings from the Quran to be broadcast from Hagia Sophia in Istanbul, reports on Friday said Turkey had decided to appoint a permanent imam for the venue.

According to the Anadolu state news agency, the country’s religious affairs directorate and the mufti of the Fatih district have agreed to assign a permanent imam who will lead five daily prayers, instead of the current two.

First call to Islamic prayer inside Hagia Sophia in 85 years

Turkey has been moving towards formally converting Hagia Sophia into a mosque for some time now. This is a significant move in that direction.

See also: Is Russia Targeting Turkey over Hagia Sophia?

First call to Islamic prayer inside Istanbul’s Hagia Sophia in 85 years

by Robert Spencer, Jihad Watch, July 2, 2016:

The Orthodox Church has protested, but the Turks know that there is nothing whatsoever that they can do that would lose them the favor of the European Union. They know they have nothing to lose, and that Islamization is the wave of the future in Europe and the West in general. The Orthodox protests are feeble voices raised against a tidal wave, with even the Catholic Church standing mute, too afraid of harming their chimerical, self-defeating, and fruitless “dialogue” with Muslims to stand with their fellow Christians in this.

“Görmez used his appearance to describe the terrorist attack on Istanbul’s Ataturk airport, in which 44 people were killed, as part of a ‘war waged on Islam.'” Muslims murder other Muslims whom they deem to be insufficiently Islamic, and this is a “war waged on Islam.”

“First call to prayer inside Istanbul’s Hagia Sophia in 85 years,” Hürriyet Daily News, July 2, 2016:

A muezzin’s call to prayer reverberated inside the 6th century Istanbul landmark Hagia Sophia for the first time in 85 years on July 1. 

The building in the city’s historic Sultanahmet district broadcast the azan from its minarets following July 1’s Laylat al-Qadr, or night of power, marking the first revelation of the Quran to the Prophet Muhammad. 

The broadcast of the morning call to prayer from within Hagia Sophia is likely to reignite the controversy over the use of the building, which was designated a museum in 1935 under Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the founder of the modern Turkisjh [sic] Republic. 

Although the prayer call has been played from Hagia Sophia’s minarets for the last four years, the muezzin has always chanted from a prayer room in the museum grounds rather than from inside the former mosque and cathedral. 

Is Russia targeting Turkey over Hagia Sophia?

Timing will be crucial as Erdogan’s re-Islamizing Turkey continues to press for a second defeat of Christendom by the symbolic move of turning Hagia Sophia into a mosque. Will pressure from Russia to return the great Cathedral to the Orthodox Church prevent or merely delay what many view as inevitable? Or is there something larger at stake?

Every year on May 29, Turkey celebrates Islam’s defeat of Constantinople and the Byzantine (Eastern Roman) Empire in 1453, and the conversion of the great church, Hagia Sophia, into a mosque soon after. Every year Muslims gather outside Hagia Sophia demanding it be turned back into a mosque, after eighty years of being a secular museum with both Christian Byzantine and Islamic features.

But this year is different, as Turkish authorities are allowing the reading of the Koran in Hagia Sophia:

Turkish national broadcaster TRT Diyanet will broadcast the sahur or Islamic predawn meal along with daily readings from the Koran during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan which began [last] Monday.

In the Church of the Holy Wisdom

“In the past year, at night, when we are outside, the smell of incense that you Christians burn in church overpowers us.”

A Greek journalist writes: “I met Ishmael who is Turkish in 1975, in England, where I was attending university. We became good friends and after graduating we kept in touch. Ishmael lives in Istanbul (Constantinople), a stone’s throw from Hagia Sophia. Recently he wrote a letter to me. “In the past year, at night, when we are outside, the smell of incense that you Christians burn in church overpowers us.”

Source: Orthodox England

Moscow wants Turkey to return Hagia Sophia to Orthodox Church

This is a stunning development, which should be read in conjunction with this post on the prophecies of Elder Paisios regarding Turkey and Russia.

Moscow wants Turkey to return Cathedral of Agia Sophia to Orthodox Church

Religious Information Service of Ukraine via Pravoslavie, November 26, 2015

State Duma deputies have supported the idea of the return of Agia Sophia in Constantinople to the Orthodox Church. This was stated by Chairman of Committee on Property, and the coordinator of the inter-factional parliamentary group on the protection of Christian values, Sergei Gavrilov, TSN reports.

Today, when Russian-Turkish relations are undergoing an “endurance trial,” mutually friendly initiatives and proposals are of special importance, Gavrilov says.

“The Russian side deems it possible to return to the question of Agia Sophia, the ancient shrine of the Christian world, located in Constantinople – an ancient Byzantine cathedral associated with the history of the universal Christian Church. We expect a friendly step from the Turkish side - returning Agia Sophia of Constantinople to the Christian Church,” the deputy said.

The Last Divine Liturgy in Hagia Sophia – Constantinople

"They entered the Holy Church with reverence, making the sign of the cross. Father Lefteris said, quietly, with great emotion: 'I enter into your house; I worship towards your Holy Church in fear…'

"He quickly moved towards the Holy Sanctuary, where the Holy Table would have been. He found a small table and placed it within the Sanctuary. He had everything in a small bag; he took everything out, he put on his vestments and began:

“'Blessed is the Kingdom of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, now and for ever, and to the ages of ages'.

“'Amen', replied the Major Liaromatis. The Divine Liturgy had begun in Hagia Sophia, for the first time since the 29 May 1453."

The Last Divine Liturgy in St. Sophia – Constantinople

Londinoupolis via OCP Media — May 29, 2015

Many, even Orthodox, even Greeks, believe that the last Divine Liturgy in St. Sophia, in Constantinople, was celebrated on the 29 May 1453. However, the last Liturgy took place in 1919. The priest who celebrated the Divine Liturgy was Fr. Lefteris Noufarakis, who was from Alones Rethymnou, Crete. He was an army priest in the Second Greek Army Division, one of the two army divisions which was part of the allied expeditionary body in Ukraine. This Army Division went to Ukraine via Constantinople, which then was under ‘allied sovereignty’, after the end of WW I.

A group of Greek Officers, led by the priest, General Frantzis, Major Liaromati, Captain Stamatiou and Lieutenant Nikolaou were observing the City and Hagia Sophia, keeping to themselves their secret, i.e. to celebrate the Divine Liturgy in St. Sophia – a decision taken primarily by the priest. The difficulty of this endeavour was the fact that during that period St. Sophia was a mosque, creating therefore some major issues. This could have created a diplomatic incident between Greece and Turkey. However, Fr. Lefteris had decided that he was going to celebrate the Divine Liturgy in St. Sophia, whatever difficulty came his way.

Muslims from across Turkey demand Hagia Sophia be turned back into mosque

Timed to coincide with the anniversary of the Muslim defeat of Constantinople in 1453. More Islamic supremacism in rapidly re-Islamizing Turkey. 

Related:

• End of Days: A Lamentation for Constantinople
• Thousands call for Hagia Sophia to be converted into mosque in Istanbul rally
• Muslim Prayers at Hagia Sophia: A Sign Calling Us to Repent

Morning prayer held before Hagia Sophia to demand re-conversion into mosque
Hürriyet Daily News, May 31, 2015 (via Jihad Watch)

A group of devout Muslims from across Turkey prayed before the city’s historic Hagia Sophia on the 562nd anniversary of the Turkish conquest of Istanbul, demanding that the site be turned back into a mosque.

Men and women from across the country gathered before the Hagia Sophia museum early May 31, as part of an event organized by the Anatolian Youth Association (AGD) with the motto “Break the chains, Open Hagia Sophia,” and prayed the morning prayer with a call for the reconversion of the museum into a mosque.

Thousands call for Hagia Sophia (Church) to be converted into mosque in Istanbul rally (VIDEO)

Pressure continues to build for converting Hagia Sophia into a mosque in rapidly re-Islamizing Turkey.

Related:

• Qur'an read inside Hagia Sophia for the first time in 85 years
• Muslim Prayers at Hagia Sophia: A Sign Calling Us to Repent
• More posts on 'Hagia Sophia'...

via Jihad Watch — May 25, 2015

Thousands call for Hagia Sophia (Church) to be converted into mosque in Istanbul rally

Well, they say hundreds: www.hurriyetdailynews.com

Hundreds of people demanded that the historic Istanbul Hagia Sophia museum be converted into a mosque during a rally in Istanbul on May 24.

People gathered outside Istanbul’s Hagia Sophia, in the historical Sultanahmet district, with some carrying signs that read: “Hagia Sophia needs to be reopened as a mosque,” and “Let our lives be sacrificed for Islam.”

The protest was led by many Turkish nongovernmental organizations, including the Humanitarian Relief Foundation (İHH).

Designed as a Christian basilica in the sixth century by Anthemios of Tralles and Isidorus of Miletus, Hagia Sophia is now a UNESCO World Heritage site.

Turkey Renovates Byzantine Church Into Mosque

A 900-year-old Christian church in Turkey is to be renovated into a functioning mosque—despite former governmental assurances that it would likely be renovated into a museum.

Update on this story. which gives some historical background.

Related:

• Qur'an read inside Hagia Sophia for the first time in 85 years
• Ninth Hagia Sophia Church converted into mosque in Turkey
• Muslim Prayers at Hagia Sophia: A Sign Calling Us to Repent
• More posts on 'Hagia Sophia'...

by Raymond Ibrahim — May 11, 2015

Foundations General Director Adnan Ertem argues that the building was a “sanctuary that was consecrated as a mosque….  It is a foundation that can be put into service in line with its foundational charter. Thus its function will be preserved.”

Enez’s Hagia Sophia, the name of the ancient church, is located inside the city of Ainos, along the border with Greece and stationed atop a hill, visible to all.

Turkey: Historic 12th-century Hagia Sophia church to be reopened as a mosque

According to my count, this makes the tenth Hagia Sophia Orthodox church to be converted into a mosque in rapidly re-Islamizing Turkey in the past several years.

Related: 

• Qur'an read inside Hagia Sophia for the first time in 85 years
• Ninth Hagia Sophia Church converted into mosque in Turkey
• Muslim Prayers at Hagia Sophia: A Sign Calling Us to Repent
• More posts on 'Hagia Sophia'...

Historic Hagia Sophia in a Turkish province to be re-opened as mosque

by Serdar Korucu, Hürriyet Daily News, May 1, 2015

h/t Jihad Watch

A ruined Hagia Sophia dating back to the 12th century in the western border province of Edirne will be renovated as a mosque, despite former statements made about the possibility of restoring it as a museum.

Following the conversion of two Hagia Sophia into museums, which were initially built as churches and then turned into mosques and, subsequently, museums, the third Hagia Sophia in Edirne’s Enez district will be reconverted into a mosque, according to Foundations General Director Adnan Ertem, despite previous debates on turning it into a museum after reconstruction.

Speaking to state-run Anadolu Agency, Ertem said the Edirne Culture Assets Protection Regional Board approved the reconstruction project of the structure, which he called a “mosque” during the interview.

Churches in Turkey on the Verge of Extinction

"Turkey... has largely succeeded in destroying the entire Christian cultural heritage of Asia Minor."

Related: 

• Qur’an read inside Hagia Sophia for the first time in 85 years
• Ninth Hagia Sophia Church converted into mosque
• Muslim Prayers at Hagia Sophia: A Sign Calling Us to Repent

by Uzay Bulut

Gatestone Institute via Raymond Ibrahim — April 21, 2015

While Eastern Orthodox Christians recently celebrated their Easter holy week, a historic church in Istanbul — the once magnificent Christian city of Constantinople — is witnessing yet another abuse at the hands of its current authorities.

“The historic Istanbul cathedral and museum, Hagia Sophia, witnessed its first Quran recitation under its roof after 85 years Saturday,” reported the state-run Anatolian News Agency of Turkey. “The Religious Affairs Directorate launched the exhibition “Love of Prophet,” as part of commemorations of the birth of Islamic Prophet Muhammad.”

Even though Christians are a tiny minority in Turkey today, Christianity has a long history in Asia Minor, the birthplace of many Christian Apostles and Saints, including Paul of Tarsus, Timothy, Nicholas of Myra, and Polycarp of Smyrna.

All of the first seven Ecumenical Councils were held in what is today Turkey. Two out of the five centers (Patriarchates) of the ancient Pentarchy — Constantinople (Istanbul) and Antioch (Antakya) — are also situated there. Antioch was the place where, for the first time, the followers of Jesus were called “Christians.”

Turkey is also home to the Seven Churches of Asia, where were sent the Revelations to John. During the centuries that followed, countless churches were established throughout the region.

One of them, Hagia Sophia, was once the grandest cathedral in the Christian world — until the fall of Constantinople to the Ottomans on May 29, 1453, followed by a three days of unbridled pillage.[1]

Hagia Sophia was not exempt. Pillagers made their way to the Hagia Sophia and battered down its doors. Trapped in the church, congregants and refugees became spoils to be divided among the Ottoman invaders.

Qur’an read inside Hagia Sophia for the first time in 85 years

Islam is innately supremacist, seeking to re-conquer or wipe out the remnants of Christianity, and the Turkish Muslim desire to re-convert Hagia Sophia into a mosque has been gathering great momentum over the last decade. Indeed, nine other Hagia Sophia (former) churches have been reconverted into mosques in the last few years alone.

See all posts related to Hagia Sophia.

posted at Jihad Watch, April 11, 2015

It was once the grandest cathedral in the Christian world, surpassing anything in Rome or anywhere else — until the Muslim conquest of Constantinople on May 29, 1453. Then it was converted into a mosque. In the 1930s, the secular Turkish government made it into a museum. But now, with Turkish secularism breathing its dying breaths, it will soon be a mosque again.

Istanbul`s Hagia Sophia sees first Koran reading in 85 years

AFP, April 11, 2015:

Istanbul: A Muslim cleric has for the first time in 85 years recited the Koran in the Hagia Sophia, the world famous landmark of Istanbul which is now a museum after serving as a church and a mosque, reports said Saturday.

The Hagia Sophia was turned into a museum accessible to all by the secular founders of modern Turkey in the 1930s and secular Turks are wary of any moves to re-Islamise the building.

A passage from the Koran, the holy scripture of Islam, was recited late Friday at a ceremony in the Hagia Sophia to mark the opening of a new exhibition “Love of the Prophet.”

Ninth Hagia Sophia Church converted into a mosque in Turkey

Rapidly re-Islamizing Turkey continues its push to eliminate all traces of Orthodox Christianity and literally recapture its supposed former glory of the Ottoman period. 

Pravoslavie - September 25, 2014

Muslim prayers are being performed in another ancient Orthodox Church, reports AgionOros

The Hagia Sophia Church in Eregli (the Greek form is Heraclea) has become the ninth Hagia Sophia Church converted into a mosque by Turks over recent years.

Don’t Turn Turkey’s Iconic Hagia Sophia Back Into A Mosque

"Turkey can’t get enough of the continuous re-conquering of Istanbul. Just such a power play is once again at work over the Hagia Sophia."

Pravmir — June 14, 2014

by Karin Karakasli — Worldcrunch

ISTANBUL — In our divided existences, everyone lives their own reality, with their own priorities. Right now, the demand that this city's Hagia Sophia museum be transformed into a mosque has suddenly become the singular issue for a certain segment of the Turkish population.

The Anatolia Youth Association announced a gathering at the iconic location with slogans such as “take your prayer mat and come” and “we meet at the Hagia Sophia Mosque for the morning prayer.” And so the group gathered at the Hagia Sophia Square, coming from all around Istanbul and the surrounding province before disbanding around midnight following a collective prayer.

“Let the chains break,” was their slogan. “Let Hagia Sophia be open.” This organization, which uses prayer for activism, deserves a closer look — for while the association seems to prioritize religion, this issue is actually quite political.

BREAKING NEWS: Hagia Sofia to become half-mosque and half-museum

Christian Icons and frescoes to be shrouded in shadows and 'dark light' to avoid offending Islam.

We knew this was coming, yet it is still an immensely significant, symbolic move, which Muslims will universally see as a "second conquering" of Christendom, and even as a precursor to the restoration of the Islamic Caliphate. As I wrote back in December:

The conversion of Hagia Sophia into a mosque is an eschatological sign of our times, as pure, seventh-century Islam, that "forerunner of the Antichrist," reasserts its diabolical hold over its fervent adherents, and re-stakes its claim to global domination, ushering in a new era of bloody Muslim jihad already raging around the globe.

Here are some of my recent posts on this:

• Muslim Prayers at Hagia Sophia: A Sign Calling Us to Repent
• Ecumenical Patriarch says 'No' to Hagia Sophia as Mosque
• Hagia Sophias: From Museums to Mosques
• The Great Church: Reflections on Turkey's urge to convert Hagia Sophia into a mosque
• More posts with the label: 'Hagia Sophia'

Turkey: Hagia Sofia to become half mosque and half museum
ANSAMed (Thanks to JihadWatch) — May 8, 2014

ANKARA - Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's government plans to turn Istanbul's Hagia Sofia Basilica into a mosque in the afternoon and evening and a museum in the morning. The historical monument, which draws millions of tourists every year, will have the Byzantine frescoes covering its walls cast into shadow by 'dark light' so as to avoid offending Islam.

MUSLIM PRAYERS AT HAGIA SOPHIA: A SIGN CALLING US TO REPENT

Erdogan has set his sights on Hagia Sophia, to turn the once luminous church structure into a dark and oppressive mosque again. Such a symbolic achievement would appear to Muslims as a second conquering of Christendom, bolstering Erdogan's push to reinstitute the Islamic caliphate, with Turkey at its head.

Islam must have such temporal victories and exert political and military domination in order to justify its existence, as Muhammad's successes in battle, culminating in his retaking of Mecca ten years after being driven out in weakness and disgrace, forever set the example for Muslims to follow.

But worldly success and temporal victories and kingdoms are not the Christian way.

Christians follow Jesus the Christ, the Son of the Living God, who "had no place to lay His head," who emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant, and who submitted Himself fully to the divine will of the Father, even to the point of death on the cross. Here we have no city, but are called to be pilgrims and aliens, journeying to our heavenly homeland. In the radical words of our Lord Jesus Christ, we are called to take up our cross and follow Him. As Fr Seraphim Rose put it:

Let us not, who would be Christians, expect anything else from it than to be crucified. For to be a Christian is to be crucified, in this time and in any time since Christ came for the first time. His life is the example—and warning—to us all. We must be crucified personally, mystically; for through crucifixion is the only path to resurrection. If we would rise with Christ, we must first be humbled with Him—even to the ultimate humiliation, being devoured and spit forth by the uncomprehending world.

And we must be crucified outwardly, in the eyes of the world; for Christ's Kingdom is not of this world, and the world cannot bear it, even in a single representation of it, even for a single moment.

If the Muslims convert Hagia Sophia into a mosque a second time, then we Christians must see in this God's providential will. If God allows the enemy to reconquer Christian symbols, then we must take it as a warning to not place our trust in mere symbols, but in the Real and True Son of God Himself. We must allow such calamities to spur us on to ever deepening faith and ever more fervent repentance. 

As Islam and the other forces of evil wage open warfare against Christ and His Church in these last times, we are called to be faithful to the end. And if we remain faithful, then, like the Lord, we shall find our victory mystically concealed in our Golgotha.

More posts on Turkey and Hagia Sophia...


TURKISH PRIME-MINISTER TO PERFORM NAMAZ AT HAGIA SOPHIA CHURCH
Pravoslavie —May 3, 2014

(ISTANBUL) The current Turkish prime-minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is considering the possibility of Muslim prayer at Hagia Sophia Church in Istanbul (Constantinople), reports Romphea. 

Erdogan is planning to participate in a namaz at the historic Hagia Sophia Church in Constantinople, reports the Radikal Turkish daily newspaper. 

The Muslim prayer will probably be performed during the annual celebrations of the conquest of Constantinople by the Ottoman Turks in 1453, just before the August elections, when Erdogan wants to retake his office of prime-minister. 

Turkey’s PM Erdoğan planning prayers with Islamic leaders in Hagia Sophia

See also my several posts on Hagia Sophia and Turkey's efforts to convert it into a mosque.

Originally posted on Jihad Watch, April 30, 2014:

Rapidly re-Islamizing Turkey has already converted two churches back into mosques. They were converted to mosques at the time of the jihad conquest of the Byzantine Empire, and then made museums by the secular Turkish government. The same thing happened to the Hagia Sophia of Constantinople, once the foremost and grandest church in the entire Christian world. Its reconversion to use as a mosque would be the crowning hallmark of Turkey’s re-Islamization and re-Ottomanization.

PM Erdoğan planning prayers with Islamic leaders in Hagia Sophia

Hürriyet Daily News, April 30, 2014

The prayer at Hagia Sophia may be organized as part of the events held for the week marking Istanbul’s conquest by the Ottomans late May, according to Radikal. DAILY NEWS Photo

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is planning to perform prayers at Istanbul’s historic Hagia Sophia, along with the leaders of other Islamic countries, according to daily Radikal.

The ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) is reportedly considering organizing a special prayer in Istanbul’s most illustrious architectural setting ahead of the upcoming presidential elections next August. The move will come amid a wider “reform package” that will contain important steps on several thorny issues, from the opening of the Greek Orthodox Halki Seminary to giving legal status to Alevi cemevis as official places of worship.

The prayer at Hagia Sophia may be organized as part of the events held for the week marking Istanbul’s conquest by the Ottomans late May, according to Radikal. The government, however, remains concerned over the possible reactions that such an event could spark.

Previously, Deputy Prime Minister Bülent Arınç publically expressed his hope to see the Hagia Sophia, currently a museum, be converted into a mosque at some point in the future day. The suggestion was strongly condemned by Greece, which described it as an “insult to the religious sensibilities of millions of Christians.”

Hagia Sophias: From Museums to Mosques

An excellent article, with plenty of historical context.

by Robert Ousterhout, The American Conservative
via Pravmir — March 12, 2014

Turkey’s ancient churches are losing a century of secular protection.

Just over 100 years ago, on March 26, 1913, at the height of the Balkan Wars, the Bulgarian army captured Edirne, once capital of the Ottoman Empire. To celebrate their victory, the Bulgarians planned to convert the grand, 16th-century Selimiye Mosque into a Christian church. Fortunately, the Bulgarian Tzartisa Eleanor intervened and put a stop to it. By July, the Bulgarian army was in retreat, Edirne returned to Ottoman control, and the incident was forgotten.

Looking back, the proposed conversion of an historic mosque into a church might strike us as shocking, but the United States and many other Christian countries were vocal supporters of the Bulgarians. Their ultimate goal was the conquest of Istanbul—once Constantinople and the capital of the Byzantine Empire—and the reconversion the Ayasofya Mosque (as it was known in Turkish) into the Church of Hagia Sophia. Emperor Justinian’s Great Church, dedicated to the Holy Wisdom (Hagia Sophia) had been converted to a mosque in the Ottoman Conquest of 1453, but for many it stood as a symbol of a lost, Christian civilization. Cries for its return might surprise modern readers, but the move was regularly advocated for in the pages of American newspapers.

An 1877 New York Times article begins, “How soon the crescent over the minarets of St. Sophia will be replaced by the cross, or how soon the minarets themselves will be entirely swept away, leaving the outlines of the church in their ancient condition, no seer has foretold.” A 1912 article predicts that the Bulgarians, advancing on the Ottoman capital, would soon plant the cross atop of Hagia Sophia. A decade later, the Greek Megale Idea held the conversion of Hagia Sophia as one of its top priorities. In 1921, a special service was held in St. John the Divine, with Orthodox and Episcopal clergy praying in six languages for the restoration of Hagia Sophia as a Christian sanctuary—enthusiastically reported in the American press.

It didn’t happen, of course. 

Ecumenical Patriarch says no to Hagia Sophia as a mosque, yes to Christian worship

Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew continues his brave and outspoken stance in defiance of rapidly re-Islamizing Turkey.

by NAT da Polis, AsiaNews via Byzantine, TX — Thanks to Fr A

March 6, 2014

Speaking to a group of visiting scholars at the Phanar, Bartholomew I defends the building's Christian roots, pledging opposition by all Orthodox, Catholic, and Protestant Churches.

Istanbul (AsiaNews) - Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I expressed a resounding no to the reopening of Constantinople's Hagia Sophia as a mosque. In fact he said that if it "must be returned to religious worship, that can only be for Christian worship."