Recently the President of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has reverted back the museum to a mosque which brings a lot of criticism from across the world. So, the question arises that why Erdoğan did this and why the world is criticizing him for his action? To answer this, let’s just briefly go through the complicated history of Hagia Sophia. So, it is a historical monument of 1,500 years old, built by the Greek emperor, Justinian I in the sixth century at Constantinople (now Istanbul, Tukey) and its construction was completed in just six years (532-537 C.E.)
It was a cathedral of the Greek orthodox and it remained as a cathedral for 667 years. In 1204, during the fourth crusaders, they converted this Greek orthodox cathedral into a Roman Catholic Church until 1261. Hence, it remained as a Roman Catholic Church for 57 years. Again, later on when Christian Byzantines came to power, it was reverted back into Greek orthodox cathedral until the Ottoman rulers, Sultan Mehmed Fatih, conquered Constantinople in 1453. it was converted into
mosque. Usually, it was a custom of that time that whosoever conquer a land, had the authority to change the religious monuments into the religion of their own.
But still Sultan Mehmed II didn’t do that rather he purchased it. There are several documents available which states that Hagia Sophia was actually purchased by him. Since then it remained as a mosque until 1931. After the decline of the Ottoman Empire, General Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, took over Turkey and declares it as a secular state. He passed a verdict in 1934 that the mosque should be converted into a museum to make it as a symbol of secularism.
Hence, from 1935 till 11th July 2020, it remained as a museum for 85 years. The decision of Erdoğan to revert back to mosque attracts a lot of criticism, a section of the critics say that he has fabricated the symbol of secularism. Also, Hagia Sophia is counted in the World Heritage Sites of UNESCO hence, the decision led the transfer of it from the department of tourism to the department of religious authority of Turkey. Others say that Turkey is suffering from economic depression and so to divert the attention of the masses, the President took this decision.
But the critics are forgetting that Turkey is a Muslim majority country where 98% of the population follow Islam.
And so, for all these 85 years, the majority of the population was against the decision of Atatürk of converting the mosque into a museum and they have been filing several cases against this decision. The people of Turkey say that Mehmed II had purchased the monument so how come Atatürk change it into a museum? And they are right.
When someone purchases a property, it belongs to her/him and in this case also when it is clear that the monument was purchased by Mehmed II, then after the end of Ottoman Empire, it should have been gone under the supervision of religious authority of Turkey rather than converting it into a museum. Hence, on the basis of the documents which were used as an evidence that Mehmed II had purchased the monument, the highest authority of Turkey, the administrative court, passed a verdict that it was illegal for Atatürk to convert the mosque into a museum. This proves that the decision was taken legally and justly.
