Turkey turns iconic Hagia Sophia museum into mosque

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The 1,500-year-old iconic UNESCO heritage site Hagia Sophia, located in the city of Istanbul, Turkey, has been finally given the status of a mosque. The announcement was made by the Recep Tayyip Erdogan, President of Turkey. Hagia Sophia is not only considered to be the epitome of Byzantine architecture but is also a symbolic importance of the Christians and Muslims. This iconic architecture was initially a Greek orthodox Christian patriarchal cathedral, which was built during the reign of Byzantine emperor Justinian I as the third Church of Holy Wisdom, which was dedicated to the Wisdom of God. In 1945, the city was conquered by The Ottoman Empire under the leadership of Sultan Mehmed II and the rulers of the Ottoman Empire converted the Christian Cathedral into a mosque with Islamic features of architecture and he also renamed the city of Constantinopole as Istanbul. It remained as a mosque till 1931 after which it was closed for four-years from the public and was converted into a museum by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, founder of Modern Turkish Republic as a part of the drive to secularise and modernise the country. There has forever been a conflict of ideologies and political differences between the two religion as the Christians want Hagia Sophia to remain as a heritage site museum, on the other hand several Islamic groups and devout Muslims wanted to convert it back to a mosque. Spiritual leader Pope Francis has called this move painful as Sancta Sophia was a place of openness and inspiration of solidarity for people around the world.