The Hagia Sophia in Istanbul is officially a mosque. Together with hundreds of believers took place, the Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan at noon in the historic building on the banks of the Bosphorus for the first Friday prayers since the age of 86. At the opening of the Umwidmungs ceremony of the state-recited-in-chief, the opening Surah of the Qur’an. The believers in the house of God, as well as thousands of prayer participants, the Call Events on the video walls around the Hagia Sophia pursued, responded with “Allahu Akbar”. The frescoes and mosaics of Christian-Byzantine period had been imposed during the prayer.
the head of The Turkish religious authority Diyanet, Ali Erbas, spoke in his sermon of a blessed day for Turkey and Islam. The mosques are sources of the unity of the believers. The Muslims called Erbas, all over the world for peace, tolerance and justice. This corresponds to the message of Islam. He stressed that the Hagia Sophia open as a mosque all the sincere people.
The Hagia Sophia was for almost 1000 years the largest Church of Christianity. In 1453, the Ottoman conqueror made it a mosque. The founder of the Turkish Republic, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, declared the building in 1934 to the Museum. Their further conversion into a mosque by the government, Erdogan sparked international sharp protests, especially from the Orthodox churches, but also on the part of Russia and the EU. The step was widely criticised as a burden for the dialogue between cultures, and as evidence that Turkey remove more of Europe.
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From mourning and as a Protest against the conversion of Hagia Sophia into a mosque rang on Friday afternoon in Greece and Cyprus, the bells of many of the Orthodox churches. The bishops of both countries called for the mourning of the bells. Cyprus Archbishop Chrysostomos criticised the conversion of the Hagia Sophia as “unacceptable and criminal”.
The head of the Orthodox Church of Greece, Archbishop Hieronymos, had declared Friday a day of mourning for the Christianity and Greekness. In response to the step of the Turkish government should be prayed for in the Greek churches on Friday, the Marian hymn, akathist. The from Constantinople, today’s Istanbul, the root end of the hymn was sung at the time as an aid in the defense from attackers. Otherwise it will be prayed on good Friday.
