Erdoğan: Proud of reopening Hagia Sophia for worship

ISTANBUL

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said on July 24 he was proud and happy for the reconversion of Hagia Sophia into a mosque as he hailed the sixth anniversary of the move.

“We are truly proud and happy that Hagia Sophia has been reopened for worship. This sacred building is a very unique work of art, both in terms of its architectural features and its place in the world,” Erdoğan told reporters after Friday prayers.

“We are fortunate to be able to reopen it and introduce it to the service of Muslims in the world. We are very happy for this,” he stated.

“Hagia Sophia regained its original identity six years ago today, after 86 years of longing,” Erdoğan wrote in an earlier social media post, referring to the period in which the structure served as a museum beginning 1934. to 2020.

“This blessed sanctuary will, God willing, continue to adorn our skies with the call to prayer for all eternity... May the resurrection of Hagia Sophia be blessed,” he said.

Built in 537 A.D., Hagia Sophia served as a church for nearly 916 years until the Ottoman conquest of Istanbul in 1453. The monumental structure was then converted into a mosque under Ottoman rule before being transformed into a museum in 1934, about a decade after the founding of the Republic of Türkiye. After serving as a museum for decades, it was reopened for Muslim worship as a mosque in 2020.

The Communications Directorate also held a commemorative program titled “Sign of Conquest, Heart of Civilization: Hagia Sophia, the Monument Transcending Ages.”

More than 30 million people have visited Hagia Sophia since it was reopened for Muslim worship six years ago, reaffirming its status as one of the city’s most-visited sites for both domestic and international tourists.

Marking the anniversary, Culture and Tourism Minister Mehmet Nuri Ersoy said restoration work at the historic monument entered a new phase as part of what he described as the most comprehensive conservation, restoration and structural reinforcement project in the history of the Turkish Republic.

Several cabinet ministers also issued commemorative messages highlighting the anniversary of the monument’s return to mosque status.

Interior Minister Mustafa Çiftçi said the reconversion fulfilled a decades-long aspiration.

Justice Minister Akın Gürlek described Hagia Sophia as “the living memory of our civilization,” saying it continues to host “the call to prayer, supplications and worship.”