Turkey Reconverts Another Church Into Mosque

Turkey is turning another church into a mosque a month after President Recep Tayip Erdogan ordered the Hagia Sophia to also be reconverted, numerous sources reported.

Istanbul’s Church of St. Saviour in Chora, a Byzantine church dating back to the 4th century, was handed to Turkey’s religious authority to be turned into a mosque Friday, the AP reported.

The church served as a mosque during the Ottoman Empire before it was turned into a museum in 1945. The church was built near the ancient city walls of Constantinople, and contains 14th century Byzantine mosaics depicting biblical stories that were plastered over by the Muslim Ottomans in 1453, but then recovered when the building was turned into a museum.

A court decision in 2019 to cancel the building’s status as a museum, making it’s fate similar to that of the Hagia Sophia, which was turned into a mosque in July, a movie that created a rift between Christians and Islamists.

Greece’s foreign ministry strongly condemned both conversions. Regarding the conversion of the Chora into a mosque, the Greek ministry said the Turkish authorities “are once again brutally insulting the character” of another U.N.-listed world heritage site,” according to the AP.

“This is a provocation against all believers,” the Greek ministry said in a statement. “We urge Turkey to return to the 21st century, and the mutual respect, dialogue and understanding between civilizations.”