Turkey’s Minister of Culture and Tourism, Mehmet Nuri Ersoy, has sparked fresh controversy after describing Hagia Sophia as a “symbol of the Fall of Constantinople” in a social media post marking six years since the landmark was reconverted into a mosque.
The post commemorated the anniversary of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s decision to restore Hagia Sophia’s status as a Muslim place of worship in July 2020, reversing its designation as a museum.
Referring to the monument as “the priceless legacy of the Conqueror Sultan Mehmed,” Ersoy said restoration work was continuing to preserve the historic building for future generations.
“At Hagia Sophia, the priceless legacy of Conqueror Sultan Mehmed, we are carrying out the most extensive restoration work in the history of the Republic of Turkey with great care, so that this sacred heritage can be preserved and passed on to future generations in a manner faithful to its authentic form,” Ersoy wrote.
He also publicly thanked President Erdogan for leading the effort to reopen Hagia Sophia for Islamic worship, sharing a photograph of the pair inside the monument.
“I express my gratitude to our President, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who led the reopening of Hagia Sophia as a place of worship,” he added.
Symbolic language reignites tensions
Ersoy’s reference to Hagia Sophia as a “symbol of the Fall”—a clear reference to the 1453 Fall of Constantinople—is likely to fuel renewed criticism in Greece, where the Byzantine-era cathedral remains a powerful symbol of Orthodox Christianity and Hellenic heritage.
Originally constructed in AD 537 as the principal cathedral of the Byzantine Empire, Hagia Sophia was converted into a mosque following the Ottoman conquest of Constantinople in 1453. It became a museum in 1935 under Mustafa Kemal Atatürk before being reconverted into a mosque by presidential decree in 2020.
The move drew widespread international criticism at the time from Greece, UNESCO, the European Union, and numerous Christian churches, which argued that the decision undermined the monument’s universal cultural and religious significance.
Ersoy’s latest remarks come amid continued sensitivities over the status of Hagia Sophia and broader tensions between Greece and Turkey over historical heritage and regional issues.