“Allahu akbar” means Allah is greater, i.e., greater than your god, and Turks today are making no effort to hide their supremacist delight. “Videos of the Greek dismay were circulated gleefully among the crowd in Istanbul.” This is no surprise, since Hagia Sophia as a mosque from 1453 to 1935 stood as a symbol of the triumph of Islam over Christianity, and of the power of the Ottoman Empire. Erdogan is now positioning himself as a new Mehmet the Conqueror, destroying the monument to secularism that the Hagia Sophia museum has been since 1935, and emulating his illustrious predecessor by converting it to a mosque once again.
With these caliphate dreams come territorial ambitions, about which the Turkish would-be caliph has made no secret. In February 2018, Erdoğan declared: “Those who think that we have erased from our hearts the lands from which we withdrew in tears a hundred years ago are wrong. We say at every opportunity we have that Syria, Iraq and other places in the geography [map] in our hearts are no different from our own homeland. We are struggling so that a foreign flag will not be waved anywhere where adhan [Islamic call to prayer in mosques] is recited. The things we have done so far [pale in comparison to the] even greater attempts and attacks [we are planning for] the coming days, inshallah [Allah willing].”
“Hagia Sophia: Istanbul revels in ‘reconquest’ during first Friday prayer,” by Yusuf Selman Inanc, Middle East Eye, July 24, 2020:
Around 10 am, the crowd in Uskudar, a historic and conservative neighbourhood on Istanbul’s Asian side, was already thronging.
Among the people carrying Turkish flags and Islamic banners and chanting slogans was a man in his 50s, looking around with bewildered eyes.
He had come from France, where he has been living since he was 15.
“As a Turk, it was impossible for me to miss this historic moment. So I came all the way by driving,” he told Middle East Eye.
The man, who concealed his name due to the allegations that the French government has refused to grant citizenship to some Turks over their pro-Turkey social media posts, was not an exception.
The ferry from Uskudar to Eminonu was more crowded than ever, and those disembarking joined a greater mass moving towards Hagia Sophia, the iconic and historic building that was now controversially being reconverted back into a mosque.
Among the masses were thousands of people who had come from Anatolia’s remote areas, as well as from European countries such as Germany, France and Austria that have a considerable Turkish population.
All the streets ending up at Hagia Sophia were full of prayers. Before the Friday sermon started, the prayers, chanted from Hagia Sophia’s minarets, were mixed with slogans.
People were so excited that the police failed to keep them away after the designated prayer areas were full….
“Oh my Lord, praise be upon you. This is like Hajj,” a man shouted. Another agreed with him and said: “I had never seen such a crowd except in Arafat,” in reference to a mountain outside Mecca.
Someone shouted loudly: “Taqbir!” And, the crowd enthusiastically yelled: “Allahu aqbar!”
“24 July, 2020, is the date of the resurrection of this nation,” one man said….
Several historical objects symbolising the conquest were used during the service. The imam, Ali Erbas, head of the Religious Directorate, gave the sermon holding a sword.
On it was written the Quranic verse “Indeed, we have given you, a clear conquest.” It was a line he repeated….
Hundreds of Muslim foreigners, including Somalis, Pakistanis and Syrians, joined the Turks outside in celebration. A group of Somali students waved their country’s flag and chanted slogans….
In Greece, whose people and church lost the Hagia Sophia six centuries ago, churches meanwhile rang their bells in protest at the conversion.
Videos of the Greek dismay were circulated gleefully among the crowd in Istanbul.