By Professor Peter P. Groumpos, Emeritus Professor, groumpos@ece.upatras.gr
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The President of Turkey, Tayyip Erdogan, persists in his provocative statements. During his recent speech to seminary students said that Turkey had "liberated" Hagia Sophia. Does he need to learn more about history and the international rules of global peaceful coexistence of states? First of all, you liberate something that you built, had for centuries, and once "some barbarians" took it away from you-possessed it or even stole it by violent force. So let's look at the history of Hagia Sophia as recorded by UNESCO and there is no room for doubt.
In 324 AD Constantine the Great began the construction of Hagia Sophia of God. In 360 AD Constantine II completed the construction of the temple and inaugurated it together with the church of St. Irene. It was the main cathedral of the capital and the seat of the Patriarchate of Constantinople until the inauguration of Hagia Sophia in 360 AD. In 404-405 AD Theodosius II made significant improvements to the construction of the temple and made it a religious center of worship for all Christians of that time. In 532 AD there was a total destruction of the first temple in the Stasis of Nika. Immediately after the end of the Nicaea Stasis, which left behind many ruins, the Emperor Justinian I initiated the construction of Hagia Sophia. As the architects of the temple he appointed two of the leading Asia Minor geodesists of the time, Anthemios of Trallies and Isidoros of Miletus. The emperor wanted the temple to reflect the grandeur of the city in which it was built. The temple was dedicated to the Wisdom of God, but it is more closely identified with the Virgin Mary. It is said to have taken 320 gold embroideries to build, which are estimated to have cost around 2.5 billion euros! Also, 10,000 craftsmen worked tirelessly for 6 years. In Justinian's time, Hagia Sophia had a thousand (1000) clergymen. The church was the seat of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople throughout the Byzantine Empire and was the most important church of the Orthodox Church.
In 558 AD the dome of the temple, which was quite low, collapsed. It was rebuilt within five (5) years by Isidore II. In 989 A.D. there was a second collapse of the dome which was reconstructed by Armenian Tradt. With the 4th Western Crusade to free the Saints from their ancestral conquerors, in 1204 Constantinople was captured and Hagia Sophia was converted by the Westerners into a Roman Catholic church. But you must know, as history teaches us, which is never wrong, that the conqueror cannot keep forever what he has conquered by force and was not his own creation. This is what happened with Constantinople and Hagia Sophia. Michael VIII Palaiologos, the Byzantine emperor of Greek origin, in 1261 AD recaptured Constantinople and restored Orthodox worship in Hagia Sophia. That is, Hagia Sophia was not Orthodox for only 57 years.
It remained an Orthodox church until 1453 AD, when it was converted into an Islamic mosque after the fall of Constantinople by the Ottomans. That is, Hagia Sophia was in Greek hands for about 1100 years. From 1453 to 1920 it was in Ottoman hands for exactly 467 years. By the Paris and Sevres treaties in 1920, Hagia Sophia belonged to no one and only by the Treaty of Lausanne in July 2023 did it revert to an Islamic mosque, by the newly established state of Turkey. In 1935 Hagia Sophia was turned into a museum by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk. On December 6, 1985, UNESCO declared Hagia Sophia a World Heritage Site.
However, recently, the Turkish State Council chose to defy this UNESCO decision, allowing the conversion of this great symbol of the Orthodox faith into a place of worship for Islam. With the agreement of Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan, on 10 July 2020, Hagia Sophia, which until then had been operating purely as a museum, officially became a mosque.
The conversion was opposed by political authorities in the United States, the European Union and Russia, as well as by religious authorities in numerous Christian countries in Central America, England, Canada, Australia, Sub-Saharan Africa, the Caribbean and South America, and by UNESCO. Indeed, the latter has announced that at its next meeting it will review the character of the monument. Their strong opposition and concern about the conversion, both before and after its announcement, was expressed by Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew and the Patriarch Kirill of Moscow.
It should be stressed here that Hagia Sophia has recently suffered many disasters. Turkish scientists also express serious concerns about the safety of the Hagia Sophia. The relevant report in the Milliyet newspaper states that Turkish researchers have discovered small cracks in the Hagia Sophia. They even point out that if restoration work is not carried out immediately, the cracks may expand, thus endangering the safety of the building in the long run. But Mr. Erdogan, you fragrantly ignored them all!
Well, given this history, from whom did you liberate the Hagia Sophia of Constantinople, Mr. Erdogan? From yourself? Only Orthodox People will liberate the Hagia Sophia from you. And it will be either the Russians or the Greeks. Get that straight in your mind. And this will definitely happen even when you, Mr. Erdogan, will not be in power. History is relentless and punishes the arrogant and abuser leaders.
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