Turkiye: former church to reopen as mosque

Plans to revert a museum and former Byzantine Orthodox church in Istanbul to a mosque will reportedly be realised in May, according to a statement made by Turkiye’s General Directorate of Foundations of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism.

Restoration works are currently taking place on the historic Kariye Mosque in Fatih, which was designated as a museum by the Turkish government in 1945.

Turkey reschedules Chora Church conversion to a mosque in May https://t.co/d58drkLPXk pic.twitter.com/mtnfstYjCc

— Greek City Times (@greekcitytimes) February 7, 2024

The statement by the government body refuted an earlier report this week by the pro-government Yeni Safak. This claimed that the restoration project in the Kariye Mosque has been completed, noting that “specifically designed carpets were laid” and it had been decided to be opened for worship on Friday 23 February, following its transfer to the Presidency of Religious Affairs by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Famed for its Late Byzantine mosaics and frescoes, the building was originally constructed as the Chora Church in the 6th century. It was later converted to a mosque under the orders of Ottoman Sultan Bayezid II in 1511 CE, almost 50 years after the conquest of Istanbul. The conversion was carried out by Atik Ali Pasha, one of Bayezid’s grand viziers, and the building was called Atik Ali Pasha Mosque or Kariye Mosque.

Plans to repurpose the former church, which had functioned as a museum for close to 80 years, were conceived in 2020 following a decree by Erdogan, which included the controversial decision to turn the renowned Hagia Sophia museum back into a mosque after a top court ruled the change of the site’s status by the republic’s secular founder, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, was illegal. While the former Byzantine church underwent this transformation in July of the same year, the conversion of the Chora Church was delayed to facilitate restoration.

Earlier this year, Istanbul marked the third anniversary of the historic and iconic Hagia Sophia reopening as a mosque.

READ: Turkiye introduces €25 entrance fee for tourists at Hagia Sophia Mosque