ISTANBUL – President Tayyip Erdogan declared Istanbul’s Hagia Sophia a mosque on July 10 with the first Muslim prayers to begin in two weeks, after a top court ruled the ancient building’s conversion to a museum by modern Turkey’s founding statesman was illegal.
Reuters: Erdogan declares Hagia Sophia a mosque after Turkish court ruling
People, some wearing face masks, pray outside the Hagia Sophia museum in Istanbul on July 10, 2020 as they gather to celebrate after a top Turkish court revoked the sixth-century Hagia Sophia's status as a museum, clearing the way for it to be turned back into a mosque.
