Sophia

"We condemn the Quran reading and holding of prayers in Hagia Sophia, which was attended by the head of Turkey's Directorate for Religious Affairs and broadcast by Turkey's state television channel, IBNA reports.

The latest announcement landed in my inbox on Saturday evening. "The Board of the Association of the Constantinopolitans utterly condemns the provocative action by the Turkish authorities to allow the calling of prayers and the reading of the Quran inside the Hagia Sophia, in the presence of the Directorate of Religious Affairs (Diyanet).

The Greek Foreign Ministry was swift in its response on Friday to comments by a nationalist Turkish politician suggesting that the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Hagia Sophia should be transformed into a mosque.

The hackers also left a message regarding the Hagia Sofia incident.

The Turksih hacking team Aslan NeferTim wrote “The duty is ours to answer to the Greek reaction to the prayer in Hagia Sofia. Tsipras do not be surprised, do not make us lose our patience“.

The Greek Ministry of Foreign Affairs made the following announcement regarding the attempt by Turkey to turn Hagia Sophia into a Mosque:

We condemn the Koran reading and holding of prayers in Hagia Sophia, which was attended by the head of Turkey’s Directorate for Religious Affairs and broadcast by Turkey’s state television channel

It is the middle of May, almost two weeks before the end of the month, and high on the agenda came, once again, the issue of the Hagia Sophia. 

An impressive figure of the architectural beauty hailing from the Byzantine-era, the Hagia Sophia at Istanbul’s Sultanahmet Square is still inspiring new studies, like the “Icons of Sound” project from Stanford University.

The new interactive production of the Hellenic Foundation for Culture, titled “Hagia Sophia: 1,500 Years of History” kicks off on Saturday, December 19. The digital representation of Hagia Sophia in Istanbul was recreated specifically for the Tholos, the foundation’s high tech virtual reality theater.

Sergei Gavrilov, an MP from the Communist Party of the Russian Federation (CPRF) urged Turkey to return the Hagia Sophia Cathedral to the Orthodox Christian Church. He said that in this way Ankara would demonstrate that good will is above politics. “We expect the Turkish side to show a goodwill gesture and return Hagia Sophia Cathedral to the Christian Church,” he said.

At a moment when it appears that …half – or more – of the Muslim world wants to emigrate at all costs and manner to all points west and north, Turkish Culture and Tourism Minister Yalçın Topçu shared his …dream of transforming the Hagia Sophia museum in Istanbul into an occasional mosque for prayers by the faithful.