Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdo\u011fan has invited world leaders, including Pope Francis, to attend the opening of the Hagia Sophia as a mosque on Friday July 24.<\/p>\n
Between 1,000 to 1,500 people are expected to attend the first Muslim prayers, including world leaders from Azerbaijan and Qatar. <\/p>\n
Erdo\u011fan published on Twitter his short visit to the UNESCO World Heritage site on Sunday to oversee conversion work.<\/p>\n
The transformation of the ancient basilica into a mosque is expected to be completed only two weeks after Erdo\u011fan\u2019s decision. <\/p>\n
Since 1934 the site was only a Museum. Previously, for nearly five centuries was a mosque, and for ten centuries the most important church for Eastern Christians. <\/p>\n
No damage will be made to the Hagia Sophia's Christian art and architecture, but its mosaics will be covered during prayers. <\/p>\n
This has been the only reaction from the Vatican. <\/p>\n
I think of Hagia Sophia and I am very saddened.<\/em><\/p>\n Days later, Greek president Katerina Sakellaropoulou asked the Pope \u201cto use his influence to raise the awareness of the international community about the conversion of Hagia Sophia into a mosque\u201d. <\/p>\n She says Erdogan\u2019s decision \u201cundermines the foundations of tolerance and deepens the rift between cultures and religions\u201d.<\/p>\n In any case, Turkey says that although the Hagia Sophia will be converted into a mosque it will still be open to people of all faiths, or of no faith, to visit. But, of course, only out of the schedule of Muslim prayers.<\/p>\n Kristina Millare<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" July 22, 2020. Conversion of Hagia Sophia into a mosque to be completed this week for Friday Prayers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":16854,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[],"acf":{"video":"https:\/\/youtu.be\/HkJMbgtFUfY","video_descarga":"http:\/\/attuale.romereports.com\/news\/bhagiasophiapopeinitationeng.mp4","international_url":"http:\/\/attuale.romereports.com\/news\/bhagiasophiapopeinitationint.mp4","type":"rrp","newsletter":"si"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.romereports.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46420"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.romereports.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.romereports.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.romereports.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46420"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.romereports.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46420\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.romereports.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16854"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.romereports.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46420"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.romereports.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46420"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.romereports.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46420"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}