Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan recently issued a decree converting the Hagia Sophia into a mosque, ending its 80-year status as a museum. The recent move is part of a longer history of the Hagia Sophia as a religiously contested space. It was converted from a church to a mosque in 1453, when Ottoman Sultan Mehmed II conquered Constantinople from the Byzantine Empire. The Hagia Sophia was then converted to a museum in 1934 by a decree of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, founder of the constitutionally secular Republic of Turkey. Now, the Hagia Sophia enters a new phase of its history and will soon host religious services in addition to welcoming visitors, taking on a status similar to the Notre Dame Cathedral or Sacré-Cœur Basilica in Paris. Questions as to how the Hagia Sophia relates to religious identity, domestic and foreign politics, and Turkish secularism remain central in light of its conversion from museum to mosque.
The implications of transitioning the site into a mosque are far reaching. Already, the move has been met with disapproval from a wide coalition of international figures, from Pope Francis and Orthodox leaders to U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. President Erdoğan, however, has defended the move as being within the sovereign rights of Turkey. More broadly, the Hagia Sophia controversy is part and parcel of the changing relationship between religion and nationalism in Turkey under the ruling Justice and Development Party (Adalet ve Kalkınma Partisi). Conversion of the site, along with the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic, invites further reflection on religion and secularism, foreign policy, and domestic politics in Turkey.
This week the Berkley Forum asks: How does the Hagia Sophia controversy map onto broader trends in Turkish domestic politics and foreign policy behavior, including soft power projection? To whom is President Erdoğan appealing (both in Turkey and abroad) by converting the site into a mosque? Why did Erdoğan reintroduce the mosque-museum issue at this moment in time? What are the ethical, historical, and religious challenges of converting the Hagia Sophia—a site important in both Islam and Orthodox Christianity—into a mosque? What role might ecumenical and interfaith dialogue play in the aftermath of the decision?
Response: A Nation in Fight with Itself: The Hagia Sophia between Ideas and Elites
Sinem Adar
August 3, 2020
Response: Does Re-Converting Hagia Sophia into a Mosque Violate Secularism in Turkey?
Umut Azak
July 31, 2020
Response: The Conversion of Hagia Sophia: Desire, Spectacle, and a Historical Re-Enactment
Ömür Harmanşah
July 31, 2020
Response: Hagia Sophia’s Status Change Threatens Cultural Rights
Heghnar Zeitlian Watenpaugh
July 30, 2020
Response: Compression of History and Boundary-Building in the Hagia Sophia Controversy
Belgin Turan Özkaya
July 29, 2020
Response: Beyond Conquest Narratives: Hagia Sophia, Past and Present
Patricia Blessing
Ali Yaycıoğlu
July 27, 2020
Response: Erasing History at the Hagia Sophia
Esra Akcan
July 27, 2020
Response: Hagia Sophia and Islamist Nation-Building: Hijacking the Conservative Architectural Imaginary
Bülent Batuman
July 27, 2020
Response: Hagia Sophia and Turkish Anxiety to Lead the Muslim World
Ihsan Yilmaz
July 27, 2020
Response: Is the Conversion of Hagia Sophia Into a Mosque an Islamic Act?
Yasir Yılmaz
July 27, 2020
Response: Why is Hagia Sophia's (Re)Conversion into a Mosque Bad for Muslims?
Ramazan Kılınç
July 23, 2020
Response: Erdoğan and the Hagia Sophia: Nostalgia for the Ottoman Empire
M. Hakan Yavuz
July 21, 2020
Response: Turkey’s Hagia Sophia Decision: A Stone That Hits No Birds
Ahmet Erdi Öztürk
July 20, 2020
Response: Hagia Sophia, Islamism, and Secularism in Turkey
Ahmet Kuru
July 17, 2020
