Turkey’s high court is expected to rule on July 2 over yet another petition to convert what was eastern Christendom’s most important cathedral for nearly a millennium back into a mosque.
For instance, Turkey’s justice minister this week said Hagia Sophia must definitely, as he said, open for Muslim prayers, claiming that a precedent is another court decision to turn the historic Chora cathedral into a mosque, from its status of a museum.
In a related development, Greece’s foreign minister, Nikos Dendias, spoke by phone with UNESCO Director-General Audrey Azoulay, with the latter, according t reports, reiterating the international organization’s standing position, namely, that the Hagia Sophia is a world heritage monument and that this status should not change.