Turkey: Hagia Sophia turned into a mosque

Shafaq News / Today, Friday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan signed a decree to open the historic Hagia Sophia landmark as a mosque.

Erdogan published on his official account on "Twitter" a picture of the presidential decree to transfer the administration of historical landmark affairs located in Istanbul to the Directorate of Religious Affairs.

The historic Hagia Sophia was built in 537 as the former Greek Orthodox Christian patriarchal cathedral, later an Ottoman imperial mosque in Istanbul.

  In 1935, the first Turkish President and founder of the Republic of Turkey, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, transformed the building into a museum.

This step comes in a challenge from Turkish President to western countries that previously warned against turning the landmark  into a mosque.