Greece, Cyprus slam Turkey’s reconversion of Hagia Sophia into mosque

ATHENS - A decision by Turkey to turn the former Byzantine cathedral of Hagia Sophia into a mosque is an "open provocation to the entire civilised world", Greece said Friday.

"The nationalism displayed by (Turkish) President (Recep Tayyip) Erdogan... takes his country back six centuries," Culture Minister Lina Mendoni said in a statement.

Greek Cypriot Foreign Minister Nikos Christodoulides posted on his official Twitter account that Cyprus “strongly condemns Turkey’s actions on Hagia Sophia in its effort to distract domestic opinion and calls on Turkey to respect its international obligations.”

Christodoulides said Turkey’s “escalating, flagrant violation of its international obligations is manifested in its decision to alter the designation of Hagia Sophia, a world heritage site that is a universal symbol of the Orthodox faith.”

Erdogan's announcement that the UNESCO World Heritage site would be handed over to Turkey's religious affairs directorate came after a top Turkish court revoked the sixth-century landmark's status as a museum.

Mendoni said the court ruling "absolutely confirms that there is no independent justice" in Turkey.

Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I, the spiritual leader of the world's Orthodox Christians, last month warned that turning Hagia Sophia back into a mosque would "turn millions of Christians around the world against Islam".

The United States had warned against the move, as had Russian officials and the Russian Orthodox church.

Patriarch Kirill, the leader of the Russian Orthodox Church, called for “prudence” and the preservation of the “current neutral status” for the Hagia Sophia, which he said was one of Christianity’s “devoutly venerated symbols.”

“Russia is a country with the majority of the population professing Orthodoxy, and so, what may happen to Hagia Sophia will inflict great pain on the Russian people,” said Patriarch Kirill in a statement this week.