Istanbul’s Hagia Sophia reconversion to a mosque causes ‘deep pain to the Russian people’
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Turkey’s top court allowed Istanbul’s 6th-century Hagia Sophia museum’s conversion back to a mosque, a victory for Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who called for the change and signed a decree immediately after, opening it as a place of worship. The 1,500-year-old World Heritage site was originally a cathedral, then a mosque, and a museum. Russian Orthodox church has reacted vehemently: it “has always been at the heart of Eastern Christianity”, FRANCE 24’s Russia correspondent reports