Turkey opened the doors of Hagia Sophia to thousands of worshipers for the Eid prayer marking the end of Ramadan early Thursday morning. It is the first Eid prayer after “an 87-year hiatus,” state-run news agency anadolu claimed.
Certain it that it is the first time the Eid sermon was held in the cradle of Orthodox Christianity ever since President Recep Tayyp Erdogan converted the historic the Church into a Mosque again in July 2020 shocking millions of Christians and not only the Greek Orthodox community.
The head of Turkey’s top religious body Diyanet, Ali Erbas delivered the Eid sermon holding a sword in his hand, “an age-old Ottoman tradition which signifies conquest,” the news agency reported.
First Eid al-Fitr prayer at Hagia Sophia Grand Mosque after 87 years#Ramadan #EidAlFitr pic.twitter.com/z3m9720vP9
— ANADOLU AGENCY (@anadoluagency) May 13, 2021
According to anadolu claim “in the past, Hagia Sophia served as a church for 916 years and 86 years as a museum, but most of its existence – 1453 to 1934, nearly 500 years – it spent as a mosque, a status it resumed last year.”
In 1985, Hagia Sophia was added to the UNESCO World Heritage List.
It should be recalled that there was no religious need to convert Hagia Sophia into a Mosque as the marvelous large Blue Mosque Sultanahmet is just a few meters away. For Erdogan was a matter of prestige and a show off.
