Controversy resurfaces as Erdogan reportedly looking into reverting Hagia Sophia to a mosque

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — Perennial controversy surrounding a 1400-year-old historic site in Istanbul have resurfaced yet again as Turkish daily newspaper Hürriyet reported that President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is exploring avenues to convert the Hagia Sophia Museum into a mosque.

The landmark in Istanbul’s historic district, which is visited by millions of tourists every year – and charges a $15 admission ticket – is a reoccurring source of political disputes, panging at the core of Turkey's secular-religious divide.  Speculation that the site, centuries ago a Byzantine-era church, could be once again used as an Islamic place of worship, has excited Erdogan’s conservative base.

“Prayers can be performed... [and] Hagia Sophia can continue to be visited by tourists as a mosque,” Erdogan reportedly told party leaders at a June 3 executive board meeting for the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), according to Hurriyet. The report also Erdogan instructed his sources to research ways that the government could legally declare it to be used as a religious site.

Controversy over the status of the Hagia Sophia dates back hundreds of years. Currently listed as a UNESCO world heritage site, the site was completed in the 6th century and was used as an Orthodox Christian cathedral under the Byzantine Empire. It was later converted into a mosque when the Ottoman Empire conquered the city in 1453. 

In 1935, Turkish Republic founder Mustafa Kemal Ataturk declared the longtime religious landmark to be permanently used as a museum, which operates until today, attracting tourists from around the globe.

Some Islamic groups want it reconverted into a mosque. Erdogan, who leads an Islamic-oriented party and has himself recited prayers inside Hagia Sophia, has also regularly spoken about the possibility of turning the domed complex back into a mosque.

In 2015, a Muslim cleric recited the Quran inside the building for the first time in 85 years. In the following years, Turkey's religious authority began hosting religious readings during the holy month of Ramadan, and the following year the call to prayer was recited inside the museum.

This year, in late May, Istanbul authorities hosted public celebrations to mark the 567th anniversary of the conquest of Constantinople by the Ottoman Sultan Mehmed II, who then renamed the city Istanbul. The events including a fireworks display kicked off by Erdogan himself saluting a flotilla of boats sailing past on the Bosporus waterway.

The celebration stoked controversy when a cleric recited a segment of the Quran known as the “prayer of conquest” inside the Hagia Sophia, reigniting claims that the government is using Islam to rally its conservative support base amid an economic downturn brought on by the coronavirus pandemic and rising inflation.