Borneo Bulletin Digital

20 / 24

SUNDAY, JULY 12, 2020 20 World
ISTANBUL (AFP) - Turkish President Recep Tayyip
Erdogan announced on Friday that the Hagia
Sophia, one of the architectural wonders of the
world, would be reopened for Muslim worship as
a mosque.
His declaration came after a top Turkish court
revoked the sixth-century Byzantine monument’s
status as a museum, clearing the way for it to be
turned back into a mosque.
In an address to the nation, Erdogan said the
ˆirst Muslim prayers at the Hagia Sophia would be
performed on July 24.
“We will perform Friday prayers all together on July
24 and re-open Hagia Sophia to worshipping,” he said,
assuring that it would open its door to all, including
non-Muslims.
“Like all our mosques, the doors of Hagia Sophia
will be wide open to locals and foreigners, Muslims
and non-Muslims.”
The UNESCO World Heritage site in historic
Istanbul, a magnet for tourists worldwide, was ˆirst
constructed as a cathedral in the Byzantine Empire
but was converted into a mosque after the Ottoman
conquest of Constantinople in 1453.
La s t yea r, 3.8 mi l l i on t ou r i s t s v i s i t ed
the monument.
The Council of St ate, Turkey ’s highest
administrative court, unanimously cancelled a 1934
Cabinet decision to turn it into a museum and said
Hagia Sophia was registered as a mosque in its
property deeds.
UNESCO Chief Audrey Azoulay said she “deeply
regrets” the decision made without prior dialogue
with the United Nation’s (UN )cultural agency.
UnitedStates (US) StateDepartment spokeswoman
Morgan Ortagus stated that “we are disappointed by
the decision by the government of Turkey to change
the status of the Hagia Sophia.”
The move was also condemned by the US
Commission on International Religious Freedom as
an “unequivocal politicisation” of the monument.
Erdogan urged everyone to respect Turkey’s
decision and said the issue of what purposes
Hagia Sophia would serve “concerns Turkey’s
sovereign rights.”
HagiaSophia,whichstandsopposite the impressive
Sultanahmet Mosque - often called the Blue Mosque
- has been a museum since 1935.
People pray outside the Hagia Sophia museum in Istanbul. PHOTO: AFP
Turkey turns Hagia Sophia
back into a mosque
BAMAKO (AFP) - One person was killed and 20 people
injured in Mali’s capital Bamako on Friday, a hospital
ofˆicial said, during a mass rally against embattled
President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita.
Thousands initially gathered in a central city
square to demand that Keita resign over the country’s
long-running extremist conˆlict, economic woes and
perceived government corruption.
But the protest afterwards descended into violence
- seldom seen in the West African state’s capital - as
protesters blocked main thoroughfares, attacked
the Parliament and stormed the premises of the
state broadcaster.
“We have recorded one death in the morgue,”
said Yamadou Diallo, a doctor in Bamako’s Gabriel
Toure hospital, who added that 20 people had
been wounded.
An ofˆicial from the prime minister’s ofˆice also
conˆirmed the death.
The circumstances under which people were
wounded and one person was killed were not
immediately clear.
The protest, organised by a new opposition
coalition, is the third such demonstration in two
months - signiˆicantly escalating pressure on the 75-
year-old president.
Led by inˆluential imam Mahmoud Dicko, the so-
called June 5 movement is channelling deep-seated
frustrations in war-torn Mali.
The June 5movement said in a statement on Friday
evening that, pending a full evaluation of the details,
it held the government responsible for the violence.
It also urged security forces to protect
“ t h e b a r e - h a n d e d p r o t e s t e r s wh o a r e
only defending democractic, secular and
republican values”.
Friday’s protest came after Keita unsuccessfully
ˆloated reforms in a bid to appease opponents this
week, having rejected calls to dissolve the Parliament
and form a transition government.
One dead as protest against Mali
president turns violent