EU Commissioner: Hagia Sophia must maintain its current neutral status

He added that the Hagia Sophia is a symbol of dialogue between religions and cultures.

"In 2010, when Istanbul was named European Capital of Culture, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that the metropolis was a real European city. After ten years, we expect the president to respect this," the Greek Scientist stressed.

The Turkish Supreme Administrative Court began consideration last Thursday of an application to convert the Hagia Sophia Museum in Istanbul into a mosque, the results of which are set to be announced next Wednesday. The lawsuit was filed by a conservative association in 2016 with a claim for annulment of the decision of the Council of Ministers of November 24, 1934, to order the conversion of the Hagia Sophia into a museum.

In an interview with a Greek television channel last Saturday, the skiner stated that the European Commission will not leave the court's decision unanswered. Erdogan called the commissioner's statement a kind of "accusation" that "directly undermines Turkey's sovereignty."

In a statement issued on Friday night, European Union (EU) High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell deplored the decision of the Turkish Council of State (Danistay) that day, as the High Representative put it, "to overturn modern Turkey's landmark decisions" and Recep Tayyip Erdogan also decided to place the former cathedral, which serves as a museum, under the control of the authority responsible for religious affairs.

Borrell underlined that the Hagia Sophia has significant symbolic, historical, and universal value. As a founding member of the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations (UNAOC), Turkey is committed to promoting interreligious and intercultural dialogue, as well as tolerance and peaceful coexistence, the High Representative recalled.

The Hagia Sophia, Ayasofya in Turkish since 1935, is a museum and one of Istanbul's most prominent tourist attractions. From 537, the building was the most important cathedral of the Byzantine Empire and the center of the Orthodox Christian world. After the occupation of Constantinople in 1453, the Ottoman Empire transformed the cathedral into a mosque. In the 20th century, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the father of modern, secular Turkey, transformed the building into a museum to emphasize the secular nature of the newly formed Turkish Republic. The monument has been on the UNESCO World Heritage List since 1985.

(Source: marmalade.co.hu; MTI | Image: pixabay.com)