Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan formally opened a former Byzantine church in Istanbul as a mosque on Monday, four years after his government had designated it a Muslim house of prayer, despite criticism from neighboring Greece.
Turkey formally converted The Church of St. Saviour in Chora, known as Kariye in Turkish, into a mosque in 2020, soon after it similarly turned Istanbul’s landmark Haghia Sophia into a Muslim house of prayer.
Both conversions drew praise from Muslim faithful but criticism from Greece and other countries who had urged Turkey to protect the important Byzantine-era monuments. Both are listed as U.N. World Heritage Sites.
The structure served as a mosque during Ottoman rule before being transformed into a museum in 1945.
Greece had criticized the Turkish government’s decision to turn it back into a mosque, accusing Ankara of “insulting the character” of another World Heritage Site.
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Can the conversion of a historical site from one religious purpose to another be seen as an act of inclusion, or is it more divisive?
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Is the transformation of a historical site from a church to a mosque simply a matter of religious freedom, or does it carry more weight in terms of cultural respect?
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How would you feel if a historical site important to your culture was repurposed for a different religion?
