Erdoğan opened the mosque converted from a church to Muslims

Last Updated on May 9, 2024 3:53 am

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has officially opened a Byzantine-era church as a mosque in Istanbul, Turkey.

It was inaugurated on Monday (May 6), four years after the Erdogan government designated the church as a mosque despite objections from neighboring Greece.

After converting Istanbul’s landmark Hagia Sophia into a mosque, Turkey in 2020 also converted the Church of Saint Savior in Chora, known as ‘Karia’ in Turkish, into a mosque.

Both Turkey’s moves have been widely applauded by Muslims. But other countries, including Greece, which have called on Turkey to protect important Byzantine-era monuments, have criticized it.

The case of Hagia Sophia is similar to that of the Qaria Mosque. Hagia Sophia in Istanbul was originally an ancient church. The building was converted into a mosque, then a museum and then back into a mosque.

Erdoğan officially opened the Qaria Mosque for Muslims in a ceremony at the presidential palace in the Turkish capital, Ankara, on Monday local time.