(TOLGA BOZOGLU/)
Istanbul, 2 jul (EFE).- The highest administrative court of Turkey postponed today until within fifteen days, the decision of whether to recycle or not in mosque, the basilica of Santa Sophia in Istanbul, converted into a museum in 1935 by the young secular republic that replaced the Ottoman Empire.
The Council of State considered this Thursday the request of an unknown association close to the islamist Government Turkish to change the decree that 85 years ago secularised the building and announced that he will make a decision within the next two weeks.
The association argues that the decree contained forged signatures of the founder of the Republic of Turkey, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk.
The initiative has been supported both by the AKP, the islamist party of president Recep Tayyip Erdogan, as well as for its partners in the Parliament, the ultra-nationalist MHP, while account with a fervent opposition in the academic sector and civil society.
In the case of being converted into a mosque the tourists could continue to visit the building, but the authorities should decide how to reconcile the prayer islamic mosaics christians, when islam forbids having images in a temple.
More than 200 scholars of byzantine art and ottoman empires signed a petition this week to preserve Hagia Sophia as a museum, reiterating that the Turkish Government should not be asking “if it is a museum, or mosque” but “how can we take care of the building”.
In the case of accepting the request to convert the building into a mosque, the Turkish Government hopes to open the flagship building for the prayer the next 15 July.
The Turkish Government already transformed in 2011 into a mosque, the byzantine church of Hagia Sophia in Iznik, the ancient Nicaea, which took centuries in ruins and had been restored as a museum in 1935.
In 2013 it was the turn of Hagia Sophia in Trebizond, a THIRTEENTH-century church converted into a mosque.
