Agia Sophia, which dates back to 537, was a church for centuries… and the seat of the Patriarchate of Constantinople… before the Ottoman conquerors converted it to a mosque in 1453. After the emergence of modern secular Turkey, it opened as a museum in 1935.
The Greek Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement:
“Recurrent statements made by high-ranking Turkish officials about converting Byzantine (sic) Christian churches into mosques offend the religious feeling of millions of Christians”.The Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs immediately released a statement saying:
“We have nothing to learn” from Greece about freedom of religion. Greece’s spiteful treatment of Ottoman-era cultural artefacts and places of worship is well-known by all”.Greece was once part of the Ottoman Empire; it and Turkey share a history marred by bitter territorial disputes and Christian-Muslim feuds.
Mosques are a thorny issue in Greece, where the population is predominantly Greek Orthodox. Athens is one of the few European capitals without an official mosque.
On Monday, Arınc, a member of the ruling Islamist-rooted Justice and Development Party (AKP) said that two other religious sites in Turkey, also named Agia Sophia, would become mosques (here and here). Its secular opponents often accuse the government of forcing Islamist values on the predominantly-Muslim, but strictly-secular country. - 02varvara
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