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Turkey: Historic 12th-century church to be reopened as a mosque

May 1, 2015 8:18 am By Robert Spencer

Hagia Sophia EdirneTurkey’s rapid re-Islamization and assertion of Islamic supremacism continues.

“Historic Hagia Sophia in a Turkish province to be re-opened as mosque,” by Serdar Korucu, Hürriyet Daily News, May 1, 2015:

A ruined Hagia Sophia dating back to the 12th century in the western border province of Edirne will be renovated as a mosque, despite former statements made about the possibility of restoring it as a museum.

Following the conversion of two Hagia Sophia into museums, which were initially built as churches and then turned into mosques and, subsequently, museums, the third Hagia Sophia in Edirne’s Enez district will be reconverted into a mosque, according to Foundations General Director Adnan Ertem, despite previous debates on turning it into a museum after reconstruction.

Speaking to state-run Anadolu Agency, Ertem said the Edirne Culture Assets Protection Regional Board approved the reconstruction project of the structure, which he called a “mosque” during the interview.

Ertem said the project would start as soon as possible, adding that the Hagia Sophia has been taken into the Foundations General Directorate’s investment program.

Explaining why it should be re-opened as a mosque, Erdem said the building was a “sanctuary that was consecrated as a mosque.”

“It is a foundation that can be put into service in line with its foundational charter. Thus its function will be preserved,” said Ertem.

Enez’s Hagia Sophia is located inside the ancient city of Ainos and although there are no records, it is thought to date back to the 12th century. It is located along the border with Greece and stationed on top of a hill seen from all around.

The district governor of Enez, Fatih Baysal, said in 2012 the usage of the structure as a mosque or not was a matter to be decided after the renovation.

“But even if it is used as a museum or a mosque, this place really needs to be [opened],” said Baysal.

Enez Mayor Abdullah Bostancı said the structure would have similar properties to the Hagia Sophia in Istanbul.

The main Hagia Sophia, which has been a museum since 1935, was built in the fourth century and converted into a mosque, when Mehmet the Conqueror took Istanbul in 1453.

The Hagia Sophia in Turkey’s western district of İznik, which was initially constructed as a church in the eighth century and turned into a mosque when the city was conquered by the Ottomans in the 14th century, became a museum in the Turkish Republic. The building was later converted into a mosque in November 2011.

Another Hagia Sophia church, located in the Black Sea province of Trabzon, had been a mosque for many years after the conquest of the city and registered as a mosque in its land title. It was then turned into a museum and transferred to the Culture and Tourism Ministry. It was retransferred to the Trabzon Regional Directorate of Foundations through a court decision and reopened for Muslim worship in July 2013.

After the conversion from museum to mosque, 33 historic artifacts from the Roman, Byzantine and Ottoman eras in the garden of Trabzon’s Hagia Sophia were moved to the Trabzon Museum in January 2014.

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Filed Under: Featured, Islamic supremacism, Turkey Tagged With: Edirne, Enez, Hagia Sophia


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Comments

  1. Fr. Basil says

    May 1, 2015 at 8:31 am

    Lord, let it sink into the earth before the mahometans turn it into a temple of sataness.

    • Manuel Paleologus says

      May 1, 2015 at 12:43 pm

      Amin. Brother! Only the blind and the devil do not see what Islam has brought into the world.
      One of the greatest Byzantine Emperors, Manuel 2 Paleologus said it well what Islam is.

      Manuel

    • mortimer says

      May 1, 2015 at 2:29 pm

      This is a SUPREMACIST, POLITICAL message.

      The political flavor is THEOCRATIC FASCISM.

    • DP111 says

      May 2, 2015 at 6:47 am

      Better still, I pray that Turkish invaders are thrown back to their ancestral lands in Asia.

  2. john spielman says

    May 1, 2015 at 8:41 am

    muhammedans always need to legislate and force islam to be the religion of the land as otherwise without brute force islam would be doomed to extinction.

    • mortimer says

      May 1, 2015 at 2:32 pm

      Exactly. Without the threat of execution of apostates, the early Islamic movement would have collapsed. Everyone 90% or more of Arabians recognized Mohammed as a false prophet.

      Islam: the doors or locked, the exits are blocked.

  3. Zomby Poet says

    May 1, 2015 at 10:38 am

    Ask your representatives:

    What are their views on Sharia Law?

    What do they think about the following statements:

    The West Will Tolerate Itself To Death.

    Why Do We Tolerate Violence Against Women?

    What are their plans to halt violence against women around world including:

    1) Female genital mutilation
    2) Punishing rape victims
    3) Honor killing
    4) Strapping bombs to children
    5) Sexually enslaving women
    6) Murdering homosexuals
    7) Child marriage
    8) Domestic Violence
    9) Disciplining or Punishing Wives

  4. Rob Crawford says

    May 1, 2015 at 12:13 pm

    Yet anyone who looks at it will know it wasn’t built by Muslims. The design and materials are classic Byzantine. Even used as a mosque, it will speak to the brilliance of the Christians who used to live there.

    • Charli Main says

      May 1, 2015 at 12:38 pm

      The Muslims have always been looters of other people´s art, science, medicine and architecture. These ignorant Muslim goat herders from Mecca invaded the Romano- Byzantine empire and then claimed the wonders they found there, were their creations.
      Did you know that ignorant Moroccan goat herders, living in mud huts and goat skin tents built all the great aqueducts, universities, cities and cathedrals of Spain after their invasion of that land in 717 AD ??????

      • RG says

        May 1, 2015 at 2:03 pm

        Excellent point! But isn’t the word “humpers”?!?

        • Charli Main says

          May 1, 2015 at 2:38 pm

          Nice one !!!!! LOL

    • mortimer says

      May 1, 2015 at 2:46 pm

      Agree: “Muslims have always been looters”

      This church is being looted the SECOND TIME!

      ‘Islamic’ architecture is no more than Byzantine architecture with geometric designs.

  5. Karen says

    May 1, 2015 at 1:12 pm

    This action certainly demonstrates their legendary tolerance and respect toward other faiths. Not.
    An interesting example of the tyranny of the majority.

    Oh yeah, it was ‘consecrated’ as a mosque, so I guess they’ve called dibs on it. Never mind then.

  6. somehistory says

    May 1, 2015 at 2:24 pm

    Jesus said, “The thief comes to steal, kill and destroy (John 10:10),” and we see that happening every day now. What property they can’t steal, they destroy. The person of faith whose faith they can’t steal or destroy, they kill.
    Clearly, these ones are from satan, the chief thief, destroyer, killer.

  7. TH says

    May 1, 2015 at 2:53 pm

    The great Basilica of Hagia Sofía in Constantinople (now Istanbul) was built by the Emperor Justinian in the 6th century, beginning in 528. It was the greatest Church in Christendom for many centuries. It contains extraordinary mosaics of the greatest artistic value. Its design and construction are absolutely marvellous. Of course, the muslims whitewashed over the great mosaics.

    In Córdoba in Spain, which used to be the capital of muslim dominated Spain until reconquered by King Ferdinand of Castille in the 13th century, the Cathedral is now being threatened with expropriation by the Socialist governemnt of the Spanihs region of Andalucía. First there was a Catholic Cathedral there until the muslims conquered the city and they constructed their great mosque there. After the reconquest the Cathedral was bult within the precincts of what was the mosque. Of course, the Socialists want to give muslims the right to carry on their preaching in it. It appears that they have no legal basis and won’t be able to take it from the Church.

    Of course if the muslims ever get to retake Spain, they will have no mercy on their leftie fellow travellers. The left is totally brain dead and suicidal. Besides, what do leftie want to have a Cathedral for? Are they going to invent the Socialist pseudo. church?

  8. Nikiforos Fokas says

    May 1, 2015 at 7:46 pm

    This is the 8th Agia Sophia just in a few years “converted” to a mosque in Turkey !
    A country of NATO and candidate member of EU …
    Of course this is an islamofascist programme of islamisation of all the christian byzantine churches .
    Turkey fears Byzantium { the great greek and christian empire } even 550 years after the fall of Constantiniple !…

  9. Peggy says

    May 2, 2015 at 5:43 am

    Imagine if a mosque was to get converted into a church in any country. There would be Hell to pay.
    Why can’t our governments and academics see this?
    Maybe we should just start destroying their mosques in the dead of night.

    • Brian Hoff says

      May 2, 2015 at 9:32 pm

      What you are thinking of doing is illegal. What Turkey doing is legal.

      • Joseph says

        May 2, 2015 at 10:07 pm

        @ Brian Hoff
        So you little turd of a supposed human, if we change the laws on the books,that will make it OK?
        This is YOUR logic not mine.
        Now go cry to your mommy.

      • Peggy says

        May 3, 2015 at 8:22 am

        Fighting within confines of the law against the opponent who will fight any way they see fit is like entering a boxing rink with one hand tied behind your back.
        You want to win? You win at any cost or think about converting to save you neck.

  10. duh_swami says

    May 2, 2015 at 7:00 am

    HMM the pendulum swings both ways…because Islam is unstable, what used to be a church, is now a mosque, due to be a church again some time in the future, yet to be determined. The way to fix this is to wait until it is once again a church, and throw away that damn pendulum

  11. Jerry says

    May 3, 2015 at 1:28 am

    What is the difference between Turkey’s genocide of the
    Armenians, Greeks and Assyrian Christians and the IS
    genocide of the Yziddies:

    Only of style

    What is the difference between Erdogan’s Turkey and the IS:

    Only of style

  12. Jerry says

    May 3, 2015 at 1:31 am

    Even the Kaaba in Mecca is a looted multi-face shrine.

  13. Peggy says

    May 3, 2015 at 8:26 am

    When Constantinople begged the Christians for help when Islam was about to attack them their cries fell on deaf ears. Islam conquered it and now we have these beautiful churches being turned into places of Satan worship.
    I see a lot of similarity today. Doesn’t anyone learn from history and we have to pay without blood so many times over? Christian world has to unite and fight this Cancer so that mankind can be free of them once and for all.

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