Turkish authorities this week are holding a symposium focusing on the iconic Hagia Sophia, the greatest of all basilicas of eastern Christendom, and nearly three months after an insolent decision by the Turkish president himself to convert the UNESCO World Heritage site into a mosque — the latest and most prominent insult to Christianity, and particularly Orthodoxy, by the Islamist Erdogan administration.
In a bid to attempt to gloss over the highly disrespectful decision and to allay international condemnation, Turkish authorities are portraying the assembly as “international” in nature, yet all of the speakers on the itinerary are academics at Turkish universities and members of state’s services.
The controversial head of Turkey’s Directorate of Religious Affairs, Ali Erbas, a close Erdogan ally, claimed, in fact, that the conference’s goal is none other than to provide answers to those condemning the glorious cathedral’s conversion into a mosque.