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Is it a Mughal-Islamic monument, or a Hindu monument? It might be argued that in essence, the Taj Mahal supersedes these religious and national extremes. The Taj Mahal, for instance, is often linked with divisions about ownership in the population of India. There exists an exclusionary aspect to this promotional activity. But when this involves linking or indexing these sites to aspects of national and international ideology and identity, one always needs to “other” someone else.
![hahi sophia hahi sophia](https://img.welt.de/img/kultur/mobile211553227/5382506757-ci102l-w1024/kombo-Bazon-Brock-Hagia-Sophia.jpg)
Many world heritage sites are used in national politics, national branding and promotion. This is a very debatable issue, and may seem controversial, but for those who believe this, the question which comes to the fore is whether the Turkish government has the right to convert the Hagia Sophia and mess with its intangible heritage context such as its legacy of being a museum.
![hahi sophia hahi sophia](https://theistanbulinsider.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/hagia-sophia-inside.jpg)
If named as a world heritage site, it arguably belongs to the whole world. However, an important question is: to whom does such a site belong? Is it to the nation where it is situated or does its beauty, value and significance go beyond national ownership? The Hagia Sophia is a Unesco World Heritage Site, inscribed as a part of the historic areas of Istanbul in 1985.īeing a world heritage site ratifies a site as highly prestigious and culturally precious to the territory in which it is located. Who does it belong to?Ĭonverting the Hagia Sophia back into a mosque has very challenging consequences within Turkey but also on a transnational level. Later that day, Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan signed a presidential decree turning the Hagia Sophia back into a mosque and opening it as a place of prayer and worship. On July 10 2020, Turkey’s administrative court, the council of state, ruled to annul the 1934 decree.
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Political campaigns both internal and external to Turkey have focused upon who rightfully owns the Hagia Sophia. In 2007 a Greek-American politician, Christos Spirou, launched an international campaign to restore the Hagia Sophia to a Christian church. In 2006, a small room in the complex was used for prayer for Christian and Muslim employees on the site. However, religious sentiments from both Christian Orthodox and Sunni Islam started to become more prominent at the beginning of the 21st century, with both demanding that the building should be returned to their religious worhsip. After extensive renovation, in 1934 it was converted into a museum – an act which symbolised Turkey’s secularism. As a result, the Hagia Sophia was closed to worship in 1931. This was followed by the reforms of Turkey’s first president, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, which set up a political grounding of the modern, democratic and secular state. The beginning of the end for the Hagia Sophia’s previous period as a mosque came in 1928 when the Amendment of the Turkish constitution defined the relationship between the state and religion. The interior of the Hagia Sophia when it was a museum. This made the building something quite unique in the world. Between 15, Mimar Sinan extensively strengthened the Byzantine structure by adding two more minarets, securing its status as a monument that amalgamates symbols of both Christianity and Sunni Islam. The building owes its splendour to the Ottoman architect of Armenian origin, Mimar Sinan. It became a symbol of the Ottoman conquest of Istanbul by Mehmed II, also known as the conqueror. The Hagia Sophia, originally a Byzantine church built in the sixth century, and for a short period in the 13th century a Catholic church, was converted into a mosque in 1453. Strategically located for more than two millennia on the Bosporus between Europe and Asia, between the Black Sea and the Mediterranean, Istanbul has been the site of major religious, political and artistic events in world history. Many Turkish inhabitants commend the transformation while mostly secular Turkish inhabitants and much of the international community find it inconceivable. The decision to convert the building in Istanbul, Turkey from a museum back into a mosque has divided opinion. The Hagia Sophia has just opened to receive Sunni Muslim worshippers for the first time since 1931.