Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has ordered the conversion of another ancient Orthodox church, which was later converted into a mosque and later into a museum, into a mosque.
According to a report by the French news agency AFP, a month after the conversion of Sofia into a mosque, which has been declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO, it has now been decided to convert the Kerry Museum into a mosque.
Both changes appear to be an attempt to gain more support from conservative and nationalist supporters of the Turkish president, even at a time when Turkey is facing a new wave of inflation and economic uncertainty due to the Corona virus.
Also read: In Jamia Aya Sofia, the Imam delivered a Friday sermon holding a sword.
However, the move raised tensions with Turkey's Greece and the Orthodox Church, with the Greek foreign minister calling the decision "another provocation against religious people" by the Turkish government.
Also read: Performing Friday prayers in Jamia Masjid Aya Sofia after 86 years
Historical status
The history of this thousand-year-old building resembles that of Aya Sophia, a medieval Byzantine church decorated with 14th-century paintings of treasures in the Christian world.
When Constantinople was conquered by the Ottoman Turks in 1453 AD, half a century later, it was converted into the Carrie Mosque.
However, after World War II, it was turned into the Carrie Museum to shake up the Ottoman Empire and push the country further towards secularism.
A group of American historians later helped restore the church's original design, which was opened to the public in 1958.
Turkey's Supreme Court approved the museum's conversion into a mosque in November last year.
Earlier, on July 10, a Turkish court allowed the conversion of Aya Sofia into a mosque, after which Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan approved the conversion of the building into a mosque on July 11.
Friday, July 24, 86 years later, not only Friday prayers were offered in the building, which was later converted into a mosque after the church and then the museum, but the call to prayer was also given in the building on the same day almost nine decades later.
