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Turkey: Pope Francis "very sad" that the former Hagia Sophia will become a mosque

2020-07-13T07:49:50.065Z


This is the first Vatican comment following the Turkish decision to transform the former Hagia Sophia into a mosque which


Pope Francis said he was "very sad" Sunday by the conversion decided by Turkey from the former Saint Sophia basilica into a mosque, at the end of the Angelus prayer. “My thought goes to Istanbul, I think of Hagia Sophia. I am very sad, ”said the Argentine pope briefly, coming out of the planned speech. The words of the Holy Father represent the first official position of the Vatican and the Catholic Church after the Turkish decision.

To #Angelus the Pope, moved, improvises a few words about the transformation of #SainteSophie into a mosque:
"I am thinking of Istanbul, of Saint Sophia, and I am bruised" See

the Angelus here 👉https: // t .co / 70UCCGOpWM pic.twitter.com/2DLbVC0vTr

- KTOTV (@KTOTV) July 12, 2020

Friday, after the revocation by the Council of State, the highest Turkish administrative court, of the status of museum of the ex-basilica, President Erdogan, from an Islamo-conservative party, announced that the basilica would be open to Muslim prayers as a mosque on Friday July 24.

Many international reactions

L'Osservatore Romano, the Vatican daily, had factually told the day before the events, citing the main international reactions without commenting but giving pride of place to critics, in an article entitled: "Hagia Sophia, from museum to mosque" .

Washington said it was "disappointed" and Paris had "deplored" the Turkish decision, while the World Council of Churches, which brings together about 350 Christian churches, including Protestant and Orthodox, expressed on Saturday its "sorrow and dismay". The Greek government condemned the Turkish decision "with the utmost firmness", Minister of Culture Lina Mendoni calling it "a provocation to the civilized world". As for Orthodox Christians, Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople warned last month that the transformation of Hagia Sophia into a mosque could "turn millions of Christians around the world against Islam".

These numerous criticisms, however, did not move the Turkish president by a millimeter. "Those who do not stumble against Islamophobia in their own countries [...] are attacking Turkey's will to use its sovereign rights," Erdogan said in a videoconference ceremony on Saturday.

Architectural masterpiece

A major architectural work built in the 6th century by the Byzantines who crowned their emperors there, Hagia Sophia is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and one of the main tourist attractions in Istanbul with some 3.8 million visitors. 2019. Converted into a mosque after the capture of Constantinople by the Ottomans in 1453, it was transformed into a museum in 1934 by the leader of the young Turkish Republic, Mustafa Kemal, anxious to "offer it to humanity".

The subject of the re-Islamization of Hagia Sophia, Aya Sofya for the Turks, had become a chestnut tree since the coming to power of the AKP, the Islamo-conservative party of Recep Tayyip Erdogan, in 2002. Reinforced by the legitimization of this religious speech, an Islamist association regularly demanded its return to mosque status.

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All news articles on 2020-07-13

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