Political Islam is the major force determining the direction of Turkey and the country\u2019s cultural landscape is not immune to its crushing impact.<\/p>\n
In a land that has been the birthplace of many great civilizations, cultures and religions, crude nationalism and monotheistic triumphalism of today\u2019s prominent politicians are particularly unsettling.<\/p>\n
Recent revival of the campaign to convert Istanbul\u2019s ancient Hagia Sophia museum back to being a mosque would be nothing short of a state-endorsed act of cultural vandalism.<\/p>\n
Originally built by Constantine the Great, the first Christian Emperor, Hagia Sophia or \u201cHoly Wisdom\u201d in Greek has been one of the world\u2019s most important places of worship for Christianity. It has survived fires, earthquakes and wars to dominate Istanbul\u2019s skyline for more than 1500 years.<\/p>\n
With the conquest of Constantinople by Sultan Mehmet II in 1453, this once-great symbol of Christianity, has become a representation of the dominance of Islam. Christian images were plastered over and minarets were added. For the following five hundred years, Hagia Sophia or Ayasofya, as it is known in Turkish has stood as the principal mosque of the city.<\/p>\n
In 1935, along with the rest of modern Turkey, Hagia Sophia was secularised and turned into a museum. Some of the original features were restored but the Ottoman art work remained. Since then, continuous repairs have been towards keeping the building in good shape – conservation rather than restoration.<\/p>\n
When Turkey\u2019s first president Mustafa Kemal Ataturk decided to turn Hagia Sophia into a museum in the early years of the new republic, he was quoted as saying \u201cThis should be a monument for all civilization.\u201d<\/p>\n
For millions of tourists and citizens of Turkey that visit Hagia Sophia every year, this has been the case for the past 70 years. But the status of Hagia Sophia has always been a contentious issue for some nationalists and almost all Islamists. Every so often, especially before elections, Islamist leaders have expressed their ultimate desire to reinstate it as a mosque.<\/p>\n
Most recently, deputy prime minister B\u00fclent Ar\u0131n\u00e7 talked about a new Turkey \u201cwhere former mosques could function as museums in the past but no more\u201d. While he approved the recent conversion into mosques of two other Christian buildings known by the same Hagia Sophia name\u00a0 (one in Iznik and another in Trabzon) he added, referring to Istanbul\u2019s Hagia Sophia, \u201cWe are looking at this innocent Ayasofya and wishing that its happy days come soon.\u201d<\/p>\n
Calling for Hagia Sophia to reconvert into being a mosque is a common stance among Turkey\u2019s various shades of Islamists. The Pennsylvania-based preacher Fethullah G\u00fclen who is locked in a bitter feud with the Justice and Development Party of Recep Tayyip Erdogan is another well-known proponent.\u00a0 The latest Parliamentary initiative to open the museum as a Muslim place of worship came from a deputy known to be a follower of Fethullah Gulen.<\/p>\n
The government responded cautiously, saying it was not on their agenda right now but some pro-government columnists warned against rejection \u201conly because it came from the G\u00fclen camp.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Justice and Development Party government would be well-aware of a strong international reaction to such a move. But just before a presidential election, the main contestant, Prime Minister Erdogan may decide it is a risk worth taking.\u00a0 Either way, Hagia Sophia is going to feature in Turkish politics in coming days. According to daily Radikal , the ruling party is considering organizing a special prayer at Hagia Sophia as part of the events marking Istanbul\u2019s conquest by the Ottomans in late May. Prime Minister Erdogan is said to be planning to perform prayers with the leaders of other Islamic countries there.<\/p>\n
I just hope the result will not be as harmful for Turkey\u2019s international standing as his previously stated wish to pray in Damascus\u2019 iconic Umayyad Mosque.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Political Islam is the major force determining the direction of Turkey and the country\u2019s cultural landscape is not immune to its crushing impact. In a land that has been the birthplace of many great civilizations, cultures and religions, crude nationalism and monotheistic triumphalism of today\u2019s prominent politicians are particularly unsettling. Recent revival of the campaign […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[4],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.firdevstalkturkey.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/671"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.firdevstalkturkey.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.firdevstalkturkey.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.firdevstalkturkey.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.firdevstalkturkey.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=671"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.firdevstalkturkey.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/671\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.firdevstalkturkey.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=671"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.firdevstalkturkey.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=671"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.firdevstalkturkey.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=671"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}