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the Question of a possible transformation in the Museum the status of a Cathedral into a mosque was updated in the spring. In particular, on may 29, the anniversary of the fall of Constantinople in Hagia Sophia took place the reading of the Quran. A week later, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan instructed the Central Committee of the ruling Party of justice and development to explore the possibility of turning the Church into a mosque. The fate of the Cathedral should be resolved in the near future.

“Any attempt now to change the status of Hagia Sophia, which today serves as a Museum, will change and the violation of those fragile sectarian and religious balances that have been established”, – quotes “Interfax” the head of the Department for external Church relations of the Moscow Patriarchate, Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk, who said this in the program “Church and world” on TV channel “Russia-24”.

He added that it was hoped that this Church will continue to remain a Museum that access to it will be open to everyone, and will not be events that trigger sectarian tensions.

Metropolitan Hilarion underscored that the Hagia Sophia is the symbol of Byzantium and Orthodoxy and that the roads around the world.

the Museum status of Hagia Sophia found in 1934 by the decision of the first President of Turkey Mustafa Kemal Ataturk. Since 1985 the Cathedral is included in world heritage list of UNESCO.