Turkey’s president Recep Tayyip Erdogan has ordered Istanbul’s Hagia Sophia, one of the world’s greatest examples of Byzantine Christian architecture, to be turned into a mosque. The US, Greece and Russia had all called on Turkey not to alter the status of the Hagia Sophia, which was built by the eastern Roman emperor Justinian and completed in 537. People visit the Hagia Sophia museum in Istanbul. Mr Erdogan had previously angrily rejected such calls as foreign meddling in his country and given his blessing to requests for the Hagia Sophia to be reconverted. Hagia Sophia in Istanbul, Turkey.

Source: The Irish Times July 10, 2020 14:37 UTC