Draft:Re-mosqueing of Hagia Sophia

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan formally opened a former Byzantine church in Istanbul as a mosque on Monday, four years after his government had designated it a Muslim house of prayer, despite criticism from neighboring Greece.

The newspaper Yeni Safak reported that the Turkish authorities are continuing with their plans to convert another significant Byzantine monument into a mosque, intending to open it to Muslim worshippers for the Friday prayers on February 23.

Turkish authorities are reportedly moving ahead with the conversion of another Byzantine Greek Orthodox church into a mosque. The Chora Church in Istanbul will be open to Muslim worshippers for Friday prayers on February 23, according to a report in the Yeni Safak newspaper.

Authorities in Turkey are moving ahead with the conversion of another important Byzantine monument, the Chora Church, into a mosque, with plans to open it to Muslim worshippers for Friday prayers on February 23, the Yeni Safak newspaper has reported.

Tourists wishing to visit Hagia Sophia in Istanbul will have to pay admission starting in January 2024, the country's culture minister announced on Tuesday.

The 1,500-year-old Byzantine cathedral, which was converted from a museum into a mosque by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in 2020, is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and receives over 3.5 million visitors a year.

The Turkish Culture and Tourism Ministry has transformed an ancient land registry office building in Istanbul's Sultanahmet Square into a museum that narrates all the changes in Hagia Sophia from its initial construction to the present day.

Archbishop Elpidophoros of America issued an encyclical on Saturday lamenting the conversion of Istanbul's iconic Hagia Sophia into a mosque in 2020.