Delaware – United States
http://www.professors-PhDs.com
Email: (email protected)
June 24, 2020
To: UNESCO
Thanks for reading Hellenic News of America
Members of the United Nations
Members of the European Parliament
cc: Global Media
We the International Hellenic Association*, wishes to inform relevant international bodies of recent developments calling into question the historical status of Aghia Sophia and which demonstrate a disregard for the historical, cultural and theological roots of Aghia Sophia. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and other senior officials have repeatedly expressed the view that the 6th-century monument, currently a museum, should be transformed into a mosque.
Turkish Republic officials have said the future of Aghia Sophia is their country’s internal affair. However, in 2018, even Turkey’s highest judicial authority, the Constitutional Court, again rejected a related petition that had already been submitted to the same institution calling for Aghia Sophia to serve as a mosque, thus closing the case permanently and irrevocably. Recent developments demonstrate the troubling persistence of Turkish officials in forcing the conversion of Aghia Sophia into a mosque. But is it that simple? Certainly not!
The Aghia Sophia, a Byzantine Christian cathedral until the fall of Constantinople in 1453, is today a museum and cultural site protected by UNESCO. It is not only a great temple of Christianity – the greatest in centuries – it also belongs to humanity. It has been recognized by UNESCO as part of our world cultural heritage. In blatant disregard of Aghia Sophia’s status as a world monument, on May 29 this year, a celebration was organized by the Turkish Ministry of Tourism and Culture and broadcast live on state television, the ” Surah Al-Fātiḥah,” a Muslim prayer dedicated to Mehmet II, was read inside the current UNESCO World Heritage Site.
In addition to having been built as one of the most important Christian places of worship in the Greek Orthodox Church, Aghia Sophia is undoubtedly the most important historical site in the field of Byzantine studies. Aghia Sophia has been the subject of various activities since its establishment as a secular museum in 1936. In the 1930s, the Byzantine Institute of America was responsible for carrying out important work in the Church-Museum. The Institute’s restoration work has been invaluable in rediscovering the glorious Christian iconography that had been hidden for centuries since the fall of Constantinople in 1453. More recently, scholars have carried out research within ‘Aghia Sophia by studying the space and acoustics of the great Church in order to study and capture as closely as possible the sound and experience felt by Christian believers in Byzantium before the conquest of the city. These important activities honor and pay homage to the biblical, historical and cultural roots of the Greater Church and should be encouraged wherever possible.
Indeed, Aghia Sophia is on the list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites. The aforementioned activities within Aghia Sophia unequivocally prove that cultural organizations, institutions of higher education and Christian communities around the world have a direct interest in Aghia Sophia. Surprisingly, a Turkish official advocated that some mosaics on the walls of Aghia Sophia be repainted. In addition, Turkey announced its intention to purchase carpets for Muslim prayer in Aghia Sophia. The conversion of Aghia Sophia will not only irreversibly damage the Byzantine iconography that was painfully restored in the 1930s, but the desecularization of the museum will make further activity by historians and scholars within Justinian’s church impossible.
We are aware that the conversion of Aghia Sophia is a worrying sign of a further escalation against international peace that will occur if Ankara is not vigorously challenged in this matter. In fact, the international community immediately condemned other cases of desecration of religious and cultural symbols, including the destruction of the 1,500-year-old Buddhist statues of Bamyan by the Taliban in 2001. Additionally, international organizations such as UNESCO have condemned the destruction of the cultural heritage of Iraq and Syria by the Islamic State. We believe that the international community has an obligation to adopt a position no less assertive and determined on the issue of Aghia Sophia than that previously adopted on the issue of Buddhist statues from Afghanistan and cultural objects from Iraq and Syria. .
