A US-based Orthodox Christian group has accused Turkey of deliberately erasing Hagia Sophia's Christian identity six yea...

A US-based Orthodox Christian group has accused Turkey of deliberately erasing Hagia Sophia's Christian identity six years after its 2020 conversion into an active mosque. The Archons, a group honored by Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew for service to the church, released a statement condemning Turkey's official anniversary program for making no mention of the basilica's Christian past and framing the reconversion as a monument to Ottoman conquest. They called it "a deliberate erasure of the historical record." The statement pointed out that Hagia Sophia, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, served as a Christian place of worship for nine hundred years before 1453, when Istanbul fell to the Ottoman Turks. The group argued that state-sponsored programming was recasting the site purely as a symbol of religious and national triumph, with no acknowledgment of the faith community that built it. The Archons took particular issue with language in Turkey's official program describing the reconversion as fulfilling a national "right" on par with the Turkish flag and its borders. They said framing an act of religious dispossession as an inseparable feature of Turkish sovereignty was a direct challenge to the Christian heritage the building represents. The group also called on US officials to raise the issue through diplomatic channels with Ankara, pressing for the reopening of the Halki Theological School, legal recognition of the Ecumenical Patriarchate's right to elect its own leaders without nationality restrictions, and resolution of outstanding property claims by the Patriarchate. Hagia Sophia was originally built in the 6th century under Byzantine Emperor Justinian I and served as the seat of Eastern Christianity for nearly a millennium before the Ottoman conquest. Turkey's government under President Erdogan formally converted it back into a mosque in July 2020, reversing its status as a museum since 1934. #HagiaSophia #EcumenicalPatriarchate #Turkey