Orthodox patriarch opposes plan to make Hagia Sophia a mosque

I hope and pray that the abomination that is Turkey is removed and Byzantium restored.

"The Orthodox prelate said that if the museum is converted to any religious use, it should become a Christian church, since it was built for that purpose."
...................................

Well, yeah—but in today's fast Islamizing Turkey, *that* sure as heck isn't going to happen.

Even Patriarch Bartholomew says ''We want Santa Sofia to remain a museum”—he realizes that Hagia Sophia's becoming a church again is not even on the table.

But it may well become a mosque again—and have its glorious frescoes and mosaics plastered over again, or even destroyed, since Islam does not allow the depiction of human figures. Moreover, these are profoundly *Christian* images—can't have that.

Just another sign that Kemalism, which has blunted—but never supplanted—the scourge of Islam in Turkey is being dismantled step by step under Erdogan.

Absolutely no chance.

Once Islamic, always so. They're even trying to claim back Cordoba which was a cathedral then a mosque and now back to Christianity.

Then there's that pesky Second Temple which according to these religious imperialists never existed.

What is so tragic about the British, is it could today be quite easily have been a church if it had not been for the British, who like so many times in history had sided with the muslims against non believers

During the Russo-Turkish War of 1877–1878 the Russians had advanced as far as Santo Stefano,(nowYeşilköy (a neighbourhood in the district of Bakırköy Istanbul). The British sent a fleet of battleships to intimidate Russia from entering the city, thus ending the Russian dream of restoring the Sophia Haga to a church.

Several treaties where signed at the time, which had a very disastrous outcome for the Armenians.

The conclusion of the Russo-Turkish war also led to the internationalization of the Armenian Question. Many Armenians in the eastern provinces (Turkish Armenia) of the Ottoman Empire, living in poor and dangerous conditions and under the whim of their Turkish and Kurdish neighbors, had greeted the advancing Russians as liberators. Renewed massacres and looting by Kurd and Circassian bands during the war had convinced many Armenians to look toward the Russians as the ultimate guarantors of their security.

In January 1878, Armenian Patriarch of Constantinople Nerses II Varzhapetian approached the Russian leadership with the view of receiving assurances that the Russians would introduce provisions in the prospective peace treaty for self-administration in the Armenian provinces.

Great Britain, however, took objection to Russia holding on to so much Ottoman territory and forced it to enter into new negotiations with the convening of the Congress of Berlin in June 1878. An Armenian delegation led by prelate Mkrtich Khrimian traveled to Berlin to present the case of the Armenians but, much to its chagrin, was left out of the negotiations.

What is more tragic is how the British again betrayed the non muslims

The Occupation of Constantinople was the occupation of the capital of the Ottoman Empire by the British, French and Italian following the Armistice of Mudros which ended Ottoman participation in the First World War.

The population of Constantinople in 1920 was variously estimated between 800,000 and 1,200,000 inhabitants; the Ottomans had collected population claims from the various religious bodies. The uncertainty in the figure reflects the inaccuracy of the method, disagreements as to the boundaries of the city, and above all the uncounted population of war refugees. Half or less were Muslim, the remainder being largely Greek Orthodox, Armenian Orthodox, and Jewish; there had been a substantial Western European population before the war.

How tragic that they lost Constantinople

Hagia was once universally recognized as 'the queen church of Christendom' - bar none - since then it has been defiled as a mosque, after the fall of Constantinople in 1453, and later: even used as horse stables when it fell into severe disrepair. This great orthodox basilica should once again be used for it's intended holy purpose - to worship Christ -not defiled as an evil mosque. For anyone interested in this priceless relic of Christendom, please visit this site: http://www.hagiasophiablog.com/gallery.html

If, God forbid, Turkey becomes a member of the EU one of the conditions must be Hagia Sophia will be returned to the Orthodox Church along with hundreds of other Orthodox churches and monasteries in that country which were turned into mosques after the Byzantine Empire collapsed and fell to the force of the armies of Islamic Jihad in 1453 the few which survived the Ottoman Turks for almost 500 years before the extermintaion of the Armenians and Greeks in Turkey from 1919 -1922 in the last century which were either destroyed or turned into mosques. One of the most beautiful Byzantine churches (also a former mosque) in Istanbuhl is called the Chora Museum. It's mosaic covered walls, ceiling and domes (created in the early 12th century) where covered with plaster and whitewashed when it was converted into a mosque after 1453. For almost 500 years this church was a mosque and these exquisite mosiacs remained unknown until they were uncovered and restored after 1948 by the American Byzantine Institute and are joy to see. Photos of these wonderful mosaics and the history of the Chora Museum, which before 1453 was called the "The Church of the Holy Redeemer in the Fields" can be viewed by typing Chora Museum or Chora Church on your search. If the Islamist's take over Turkey this church in the suburbs of Istanbuhl will without a doubt become a mosque once again and these magnificent mosaics covered up (or worse) and perhaps lost forever. What makes these mosaics so impressive is not just their beauty but that they cover almost 90% of the church and are not small surviving examples spotted on the walls and domes througout this church.

Gunung Semeru

re. your comments above, about the events at the end of the Russo-Turkish war, and again, at the end of WWI.

Two of history's greatest and most tragic 'flubbed catches'.

Two great betrayals. Non-Muslims have no business ever siding with Muslims against other non-Muslims.

It has always struck me that if Russia had been permitted to rescue Constantinople - and the Armenian provinces - in the late 19th century - the daughter rescuing the mother, for Russia was Christianised from Constantinople, the Hagia Sophia is in a sense the 'Mother Church' - the whole of subsequent history, most notably the history of Russia, might have been a lot different (and we would not have had the Jihad Genocide of the Armenians in the late 19th/ early 20th century).

And the Hagia Sophia would have become a church once more.

Given that the first 'catch' was flubbed, there was, on a lesser scale, the 'second chance', with the Allied 'occupation' of Constantinople. The Muslims should have been evicted, and the city been assigned to Greece; and, again, the Hagia Sophia - which one writer that I have read, though I can't now recall his name, called "the most beautiful church in Christendom" - would have been restored to its rightful owners, the community who built it in the first place, and to the use for which it was created.