UNESCO has once again officially expressed its “deepest regrets” and is now asking for an updated report on the conservation of the Hagia Sophia site in Istanbul, Turkey, adding another chapter to the embattled country’s ongoing feud with the UN’s cultural apparatus.
The body held its annual meeting Friday to discuss the status of and possible threats to an artificially long list of World Heritage Sites that has backlogged thanks to COVID-related delays of UNESCO’s 44th conference.
The group has sparred with Turkey over the temple-turned-museum that was recently converted into a mosque despite significant backlash on the part of UNESCO and other international organizations.
UNESCO said it has “grave concern” over changes to the character of the Hagia Sophia and another site called the Chora Monastery, and is now formally requesting a report from the Turkish government due no later than February 1st.
The Foreign Ministry of Turkey responded by calling UNESCO’s decision “biased” and claimed it was “prepared with political intentions.” Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan stepped up the government’s reaction with a social media post declaring the Hagia Sophia’s conversion to be “a symbol of the re-rising of the sun of our civilization.”
UNESCO has yet to respond to Erdogan or the Foreign Ministry’s statements. The two parties have been sparring over the 1,500-year-old religious site since last year when Erdogan announced the conversion in a transparent attempt to pander to nationalist supporters.
Greek officials have expressed their support of UNESCO's ruling. Deutsche Welle has more on the Turkish response here.
21 Comments
So, UNESCO, to please its also politicized western donors, took the poison pawn Erdogan offered. (Btw, he is the president, not the prime minister.)
What will UNESCO do, are they going to write off Hagia Sophia from the World Heritage Sites list? That's what Erdogan wants. To further harp on the subject of Islamophobia. That's his countering lifeline. He will gain more power among the domestic supporters and the European Muslims. UNESCO is also fueling the fire and hurting the secular people in Turkey.
I want to add this too, architecturally speaking, anybody knows how many beautiful mosques and public buildings Ottomans built in Europe are demolished or no longer serving as mosques? Didn't Christians convert mosques into churches in Alhambra and elsewhere? Why are these cases aren't talked about?
As far as I know, anybody can enter Hagia Sophia and see its architecture regardless of their religious preference. If they want to pray to whomever, they can do that. Why is this such a big burning issue now? It's only serving to radicalize the situation further. The Turks, over the centuries, built four minarets on each corner and Turkish society traditionally refers to the Hagia Sophia as a mosque. Does UNESCO really think it can force a mandate to 85 million Turks?
It served as a mosque from 1453 until1934. I wished it remained a museum but I am a minority. Most Turkish people want to see it as a mosque. It's partly a mass reaction to the rise of Islamophobia in the west.
For me, it has a big place in my architectural education. My father took me there when I was nine years old in fourth grade just to show me the building. About its function, he said sometimes people come there to pray. He didn't say this or that religion.
Since I never had such an experience of any building with such awe.
I’m not Muslim, but have always had a deep connection to Islamic architecture. Something about it speaks to me on that transcendent level…The ability to appreciate the universal undertones of other cultures is more important than trying to bend that culture to appeal to a more universal pallet, imo. If someone can’t appreciate the building as a mosque, as they can as a museum, I’d bet they are a little tone deaf. So, this seems like an appeal to the lowest common denominator, which we should never do with art, food, architecture,
Not saying that the Hagia Sofia is Islamic architecture to clarify….just a general statement that architecture is not only about how it’s used…
wow! Heavy fanaticism and hate trolling and a lot of misinformation!
Agree with the above post. This is playing out exactly the way Mr. President wished it would, perhaps a little hard to understand for people not familiar with Turkish domestic political landscape.
Funny enough, there is, and always be, something transcendental about architecture itself, beyond any ascribed agenda - they all wear out (sometimes takes centuries though) eventually. I wished too it remained as a museum, as a global civic heritage, but even then it was never a "museum" in the eyes of many people. It has always been, and remains, as an Orthodox church in the eyes of many other people. The semantic/bureaucratic debate doesn't take us anywhere and only serves to strengthen the adversarial and the populist. What matters is the loyal preservation of the space and a diplomatic approach from all parties who sincerely aspire just that.
We can also turn the whole thing into a more positively human story of Hagia Sophia's unusualness for being perhaps the only major temple where the two Abrahamic religions lived within each other's iconography for centuries. All the Christian frescos are only screened temporarily during mosque prayer times but are fully visible between the prayers. It is because Islam doesn't allow human and animal depictions/paintings. Only the intricate celestial and geometric patterns. Only depictions of somewhat figurative representation exist in calligraphic patterns of verses from the Quran.
The physical conversion of the interiors is very refined and quite genius. There's a slight shift of the original axis not unlike some current shifting of rectangular geometries like you'd see layered plans. There are four big oval panels of calligraphy on four points re-defining the space for a different faith. There are many other crossover details that are fascinating and very respectful to the original temple and its architecture. The spirit of the church Hagia Sophia has never left the space and it lives with each Muslim prayer.
These things are still there and not understood by the Christian fanatics who still go into impossible property ownership arguments. Their agenda is not of co-existence. Those claims will not lead to any peace on Earth.
How would the Muslim fanatics
feel if the most sacred Muslim mosque was converted to a church and covered during prayer
The same way the christian fanatics feel about Muslims.
it was built as an ORTHODOX CHURCH and an example of one. It was so good that it was copied by another religion. Whatever modifications that are done can not change the identity.
Ps. A Ferrari will still be a Ferrari no matter what Ford modifications.
Imagine if UNESCO was around during the time when Mosque–Cathedral of Córdoba was active.
It’s a little different. Both cases involve imperialism by the ottomans. Not an issue by my rules…as I don’t buy into the whole “stolen land” theme… but is by the wokie left I thought? Or is it just imperialism by Europeans that’s bad? Such bendy rules. I think the stronger gets the land and focus goes towards future…but you guys saying that America is illegitimate because imperialism sure have a funny one on your hands with this. Lmao.
Conversion of mosques into non-Islamic places of worship
Hagia Sophia was converted much later than some of these conversions.
A little research and intelligence are needed before adding comments in Archinect... You owe it to the community...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conversion_of_mosques_into_non-Islamic_places_of_worship
The Parthenon was converted into a Christian church, complete with added bell tower(?), paintings depicting Christian themes, and a gold mosaic of the Virgin Mary. It lasted eight centuries. Around the 15th century, after the Ottoman conquest, it was converted into a mosque. The paintings were washed over, the tower extended into a minaret.
Then in 1867 Venetian mortar exploded gun powder stored there. Later another mosque was built inside the ruins, since removed.
Now Greece is trying to restore it to its original from, based on a religion few if any follow, though its style and figures have had tremendous influence on western culture.
So which one is the true Partheon? And who has, should have the authority to decide?
I don't know how to answer either question, other to say that neither is easy. In the case of the Parthenon, the conversions were determined by the ruling culture/religion.
Both it and Hagia Sophia and their conversions were designed based on religious beliefs. I'm not going to defend Erdogan, but I'm not going to question the devoutness of the Muslim followers. A church of whatever stripe should be used to be meaningful. The icons, the minority of Christians, however, present serious questions.
As an aside, I've always liked the minarets on Hagia Sophia, largely because that's how I know it. The structure is massive, however, and they provide a lighter touch, vertical relief.
I am intrigued with this:
According to tradition, [Sultan] Mehmed greatly admired the city’s classical past and issued an imperial edict to protect its remnants. The destruction or looting of classical monuments would be punished by death.
https://mentoringreece.com/the...
Good points.
Make that 1687 for the Acropolis fireworks.
I believe the point most people, even in the discussion here, seem to be missing is that we are talking about (and this is what's so beautiful about architecture after all) a site that witnessed over 1500 years of history. The issue of "ownership" of a building typology in itself is futile, but especially in the case of Hagia Sophia - situated in what was considered to be the center of the known world (Ecumene) for a long time, not to mention the focal point Constantinople had in Islamic theology and eschatology, hence the particular importance of the site and the act of conquering and conversion from that perspective.
What people have to realize is that buildings have always been vessels for ideologies. Justinian had his own ideology when first commissioning Hagia Sophia (on the site of a previous church that existed for about 200 years), in an effort to rival Pantheon and solidify the capital of his empire. Contrary to what some seem to believe, Orthodox Christianity wasn't around as a concept at that time, as East/West schism itself comes roughly 500 years after Hagia Sophia. Architectural DNA of the plan feeds both from secular Roman basilica typology as well as the Greek-cross churches; particularly because structurally speaking it's the most sound way to go about building what they believe to be the largest dome in the world at the time. The first "conversion" Hagia Sophia has to go through comes around 1200s (200 year before the Ottomans) when Latin crusaders loot the city and convert it (funny how all it takes to convert a building is to declare) to a Roman Catholic cathedral. After the Ottoman Istanbul, the site goes through numerous additional architectural appendages that grow it into the 'complex' it is today. The true architectural extent of Hagia Sophia as a royal site involves a school, library, and mausoleums. It bears the work of numerous architects and engineers across generations and nationalities, grafted respectfully within one another.
When the modern Turkish Republic initially declared it as a museum, a secular site, it was an ideological decision as well, in a spirit of the young republic embracing peace, an open hand to its neighbors, as an act of diplomacy, in a post-war Europe of newly minted nation states. The current "conversion" is first and foremost done in direct response to those secular aspirations and what they meant - within a domestic political tug of war that will likely go on for decades, while any adversarial reaction by the international community to the matter is being milked for more populism.
Fatih Sultan Mehmed on the other hand, was a brilliant mind of his time that is probably not understood greatly by many today (at least in Turkey). As a polyglot, he looked respectfully towards other cultures, and viewed his empire partly as a continuation of Justinian's. This is a great research if anyone is actually interested, I recommend looking for the pdf: https://www.jstor.org/stable/2...
Better points, a good read.
A snapshot from a writer's journal (2014). More of a contemporary Istanbul resident's mindset.
https://www.theparisreview.org...
History is just the wind behind the present. According to the laws of physics, it’s gone. Humans need to be present more.
We visited yesterday, probably fourth visit in my lifetime, first since it became a mosque. Sorry, the entry was pure bedlam (two hour wait in the sun while they cleared out a special group (school children), and once inside, it was a nonstop photo op. People had no appreciation of the history or the context. Just selfies. Maybe it is free now, but you get what you pay for, right? And they have no idea oh how many visitors they have.
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