Tag: Hagia Sophia
Turkey’s bid to return to Ottoman-era glory endangers Israel and the region
Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has high ambitions. He wants to take his country back to what he perceives as the glory days of the Ottoman Empire, but the leader, who has been described...
American Islamists laud Erdoğan’s transformation of Hagia Sophia into a mosque
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is enjoying strong support from many American Islamists for his decision to revert the ancient Christian cathedral of Hagia Sophia into a mosque, following a court ruling earlier this month that...
Turkey’s Hagia Sophia opens as mosque with Erdoğan reciting first prayer
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan joined hundreds of Muslim worshippers in Istanbul on Friday for the first prayers from the Koran in nearly 90 years inside the Hagia Sophia, once one of Christianity’s most...
Turkey’s mad sultan
Last week, in defiance of Pope Francis and the entire Christian world, Sultan Erdoğan’s dream became reality. Images depicting the Archangel Gabriel, the Virgin Mary and Christ Pantocrator, along with numerous other famous mosaics...
Is Erdoğan’s decision to convert the Hagia Sophia into a mosque a sign of...
The decision by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan to convert the Hagia Sophia Cathedral turned museum in Istanbul back into a mosque reinforces his long-held plans for promoting Islamic supremacy and lifts his sagging...
Turkey’s dual message on the reversion of the Hagia Sophia to a mosque
Following Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s reversal last week of a 1934 law converting the Hagia Sophia Mosque into a museum, his personal Twitter account and that of his office emphasized different aspects of...
Erdoğan: Hagia Sophia ‘resurrection’ harbinger for Al-Aqsa ‘liberation’
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan vowed on Friday that the “resurrection” of the ancient Hagia Sophia church in Istanbul as a mosque bodes well for the “liberation” of the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem. He...