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$Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said the Hagia Sophia will \be taken out of\ its museum status and called a mosque. (Photo: AFP)$ Life

Hagia Sophia to soon become a mosque?

Turkish President Erdogan says time has come for Hagia Sophia to be a mosque as a part of his election campaign.

28 March 2019 10:24 AM

Ali Erbas, the head of Turkeys highest religious authority prays in front of worshippers wearing protective facemasks maintaining the required social distance during the Friday prayer in The Fatih Mosque in Istanbul. (AFP)

Turkish mosques reopen for mass prayers

President Erdogan said many other sites like restaurants and cafes as well as libraries, parks and beaches will reopen...

30 May 2020 6:25 AM

Men wearing face masks wait before praying in front of Hagia Sophia during the preparations for the Friday prayier in Istanbul, on July 23, 2020. - The first prayers at Hagia Sophia since the Istanbul landmark was reconverted to a mosque will take place on July 23, 2020. (AFP)

First Friday prayers held in Hagia Sophia after mosque reconversion

Experts say Erdogan's move to reconvert Hagia Sophia is an attempt to galvanise his conservative and nationalist base

24 July 2020 10:28 AM

Visitors look at mosaics inside the Byzantine-era Hagia Sophia, in the historic Sultanahmet district of Istanbul.Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is scheduled to join hundreds of worshipers Friday, July 24, 2020, for the first Muslim prayers at the Hagia Sophia in 86 years, weeks after a controversial high court ruling paved the way for the landmark monument to be turned back into a mosque. The mosaics will be covered up with curtains during the prayers, officials have said. (AP)

Five things to know about the Hagia Sophia

The conversion of the edifice, once an important church of Christendom and 'jewel' of Byzantine Empire, has led to an...

24 July 2020 5:06 AM

Pope Francis. (AP)

Pope Francis hurt by Turkey's decision to turn Hagia Sophia into a...

'My thoughts go to Istanbul. I think of Santa Sophia and I am very pained,' the Pope said during his weekly blessing in...

13 July 2020 6:47 AM

A man waves a Turkish flag outside the Byzantine-era Hagia Sophia, one of Istanbuls main tourist attractions in the historic Sultanahmet district of Istanbul, following Turkeys Council of States decision. (AP)

World Council of Churches dismayed' at Hagia Sophia shift

US State Department said it was disappointed' by the decision and looks forward to seeing how Turkey plans to keep the...

12 July 2020 4:37 AM

Aerial view of the Byzantine-era Hagia Sophia, one of Istanbuls main tourist attractions in the historic Sultanahmet district of Istanbul. (AP)

Turkey's court ruling turns Hagia Sophia into a mosque

The decision to turn the former cathedral to a place of muslim worship has sparked deep dismay among country's Orthodox...

11 July 2020 7:44 AM

People visit the Byzantine-era Hagia Sophia, one of Istanbuls main tourist attractions in the historic Sultanahmet district of Istanbul. (AP)

Museum or mosque? The debates around Byzantium's iconic Hagia Sofia

Once a cathedral of Byzantium Empire, then a mosque under Ottoman Empire, the iconic Hagia Sophia awaits decision to be...

1 July 2020 10:28 AM

Recep Tayyip Erdogan (PTI)

Saeed Naqvi | Will Erdogan's Islamist play at Hagia Sophia rescue his...

A powerful anti-West Islamist party, Refah, or Welfare, took shape and spread like prairie fire

13 Aug 2020 2:18 PM