Hagia Sophia

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's decree to convert the Hagia Sophia museum, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, into a mosque has received sharp criticism from Greece and many political and world leaders. Greece strongly condemns Turkey's decision to turn the World...

  UNESCO, the United Nations body tasked with the identification and preservation of sites with the greatest significance to the world's priceless common heritage, issued a statement on Friday regarding Turkish President Erdogan's official decree turning Hagia Sophia, the greatest...

Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan issued a decree on Friday to formally declare  Hagia Sophia a mosque, mere minutes after Turkey’s administrative court annulled a 1934-dated decision that paved the way for the use of the 15-century-old structure as...

Following Turkey's decision to annul the 1934 conversion of Constantinople’s Hagia Sophia into a museum, paving the way for its reconversion into a mosque, questions are asked about the fate of numerous mosaics that decorate several of its interior...

Turkey's top administrative court, the Council of State, announced on Friday that the 1934 conversion of Constantinople's Hagia Sophia into a museum was unlawful, paving the way for its reconversion into a mosque despite strong international opposition. Turkey's President Recep...

American officials reacted angrily on Friday to the decree by Turkey's president Recep Tayyip Erdogan to change Hagia Sophia's status from a museum and World Heritage site to a mosque.  The leadership of the powerful Senate Foreign Relations Committee issued...

Minutes after President Erdogan signed the decree turning Hagia Sophia into a Mosque, a crowd of Muslims gathered for a prayer at the UNESCO cultural site. Turkey’s administrative court annulled a 1934-dated decision that paved the way for the use...

  Two Turkish officials stated on Thursday that it is likely that a Turkish court will give its approval for the reconversion of the former Byzantine cathedral Hagia Sofia back into a mosque, as had been done after the Ottoman...

The professional crew behind the documentary title "The Beneath," a film showing what lies underneath the Byzantine cathedral of Hagia Sophia, recently returned to the monument in order to continue its investigations of the building's subterranean ruins. According to the...

Patriarch Kirill of Moscow, the highest cleric in the Russian Orthodox Church, recently spoke out against Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's plans to convert Hagia Sophia into a mosque, calling it a threat to Christianity. In an official statement, which...