Turkey has reconverted another ancient Orthodox Church into a mosque, a month after the opening of the popular Hagia Sophia to a Muslim place of worship.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan signed an edict and published in Turkey’s official gazette declaring “the management of the Kariye Mosque be transferred to the Religious Affairs Directorate, and (the mosque) opened to worship.”
The historic Chora church – known as Kariye in Turkish- is one of Istanbul’s most celebrated Byzantine buildings.
The 1,000-year-old building’s history closely resembles Hagia Sophia – its bigger neighbour on the historic western bank of the Golden Horn on the European side of Istanbul.
It was originally converted into the Kariye Mosque half a century after the 1453 conquest of Constantinople by the Ottoman Turks.
It became the Kariye Museum after World War II as Turkey pushed ahead with the creation of a more secular state.
Last year, a Turkish court annulled a 1945 government decision converting the church into a museum run by the Education Ministry.
