Istanbul: Turkey’s president recited a verse from the Quran on Saturday in the Hagia Sophia, a historic Istanbul landmark that has become a symbol of interfaith and diplomatic tensions.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan recited the first verse of the Quran at the end of his remarks for an art festival opening, dedicating the prayer to the “souls of all who left us this work as inheritance, especially Istanbul’s conqueror”.
The Hagia Sophia was built during the 6th century Christian Byzantine Empire and served as the seat of the Greek Orthodox Church. It was converted into an imperial mosque with the Ottoman conquest of Istanbul in 1453.
Turkey’s secular founder made the structure a museum in 1935, but there have been discussions by Erdogan’s Islamic-leaning government about turning it back into a mosque.
Thousands of Muslim Turks have prayed outside the Hagia Sophia over the years to demand that it be restored as a place of worship.
In 2015, a cleric recited from the Quran inside the building, a Unesco World Heritage site, for the first time in 85 years.
The following year, Turkey’s religious authority began hosting and broadcasting religious readings during Ramadan.
Erdogan said on Saturday that it was “difficult and emotional” to be speaking at the Hagia Sophia, which he described as a “magnificent and holy”.
Greece has protested the Turkish government’s religious use of the venue, calling it last summer an “affront to the international community”.
