UNESCO Responds To Turkey's Plan To Turn Hagia Sophia Into A Mosque

Hagia Sophia (Meriç Dağlı / Unsplash)

JAKARTA - Turkey's main administrative court is set to announce the change in the status of the Hagia Sophia from Museum to mosque on Friday, July 10. The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) talks about it. UNESCO records place the Hagia Sophia as a world heritage in the form of a museum.

UNESCO says any change in the status of the Hagia Sophia museum in Istanbul should be reviewed by the world heritage committee. "So, countries must ensure that no modification undermines the extraordinary universal value of a site registered on its territory," said UNESCO, quoted by Reuters , Friday, July 10.

"Any modifications must be notified in advance by the country to UNESCO and reviewed if necessary by the World Heritage Committee," he added.

Apart from that, UNESCO also expressed their concern to the authorities in several letters to the Turkish Ambassador on Thursday, 9 July. "We urge the Turkish government to initiate a dialogue before decisions are taken which could undermine the universal value of the site."

Not only UNESCO. Concerns also arose from many officials abroad, including the United States, France, Russia, Greece, and leaders of the world Orthodox Christian Church.

Moreover, the Hagia Sophia is a world heritage site that is most visited by world travelers because it was the center of the Christian Byzantine and Muslim Ottoman empires. In fact, from all places in Turkey the number of visits to Hagia Sophia is still the most.

Historically, the Hagia Sophia was an important place of worship for Orthodox Christians for centuries, until Istanbul - later known as Constantinople - fell to the Ottoman Turks in 1453.

Since then, the Hagia Sophia was built into a mosque. Then, after the presence of the Republic of Turkey under Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the status of Hagia Spohia was changed to a museum in 1934.