A general view inside Hagia Sophia in Istanbul, Turkey, 1 July 2020 [Flickr]
Ishtartv.com - middleeastmonitor.com
July 11, 2020
UNESCO said on Friday its World
Heritage Committee would review Hagia Sophia’s status after Turkish President
Tayyip Erdogan
declared the ancient monument in Istanbul a mosque again.
Erdogan made the announcement
shortly after a top court ruled that the sixth-century building’s conversion to
a museum in 1934 by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, founder of the modern secular
Turkish republic, was
illegal.
UNESCO said that decision raised
questions about the impact on its universal value as a site of importance
transcending borders and generations, which is necessary to be included on its
coveted list of World Heritage sites.
Countries must notify the United
Nation’s cultural body of any changes in the status of a site, triggering a
review by its World Heritage Committee if need be, it said in a statement.
“It is regrettable that the
Turkish decision was not the subject of dialogue nor notification beforehand,”
the United Nation’s cultural body said in a statement.
“UNESCO calls on the Turkish
authorities to open a dialogue without delay in order to avoid a step back from
the universal value of this exceptional heritage whose preservation will be
reviewed by the World Heritage Committee in its next session,” it said.
The World Heritage site was at
the centre of both the Christian Byzantine and Muslim Ottoman empires and is
today one of Turkey’s most-visited monuments, revered by Christians and Muslims
alike.
The United States, Russia,
Greece, and Christian church
leaders had urged Turkey to maintain Hagia Sophia’s status as a
museum.
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