Soon after the Turkish President Erdogan has instructed to explore the possibility of turning the Cathedral into a mosque. He was supported by the Ministry of justice and Ministry of foreign Affairs of Turkey. Only the Armenian Patriarch of Turkey, Sahak II suggested that the Hagia Sophia became a place of prayer for Christians and Muslims. Against the transformation of the Cathedral into a mosque were expressed by the representatives of the Orthodox churches and diplomats of several countries, including Secretary of state Mike Pompeo.
“can’t go back to Medieval times, – said the head of the Synodal Department for external Church relations of the Moscow Patriarchate, Metropolitan Hilarion. We live in a multipolar, multi-religious world, and need to be respectful to the feelings of believers, so the Russian Orthodox Church considers unacceptable the transformation of Hagia Sophia into a mosque”.
Hilarion, as the foreign Ministers of several States, the initiative of Erdogan explain the complex situation in Turkey, when the President takes the side of those radicals who long called the temple converted into a mosque. However, the Russian Orthodox Church shares the position of all Orthodox churches, that the status of the Hagia Sophia in Istanbul is not only an internal affair of Turkey. Hagia Sophia is a monument of the world and Christian values, is a monument of world culture and a world heritage site by UNESCO. And his destiny around the world.
the Status of a Museum, the Hagia Sophia in Istanbul received in 1934 by the decision of the first President of Turkey Mustafa Kemal atatürk.