Hagia Sophia

Pope Benedict XVI, laid to rest at the Vatican on Thursday, stirred controversy early in his pontificate by quoting a Byzantine emperor critical of Islam.

The Greek Orthodox Church of the United States petitioned the United Nations on Tuesday to force Turkey into protecting Orthodox Christianity’s cultural heritage following the Turkish government’s unilateral decision to convert Istanbul’s landmark former cathedral Hagia Sophia into a mosque.

Turkish authorities razed to the ground the historic St. Georgios Christian church late Wednesday, an iconic structure known as the “Hagia Sophia of Bursa.”

Greek President Katerina Sakellaropoulou denounced Turkey’s conversion of the historic Church of Chora into a mosque as an act of “symbolic violence” this weekend.

Over 30 suspected Russian mercenaries detained in Belarus last week were passing through the country en route to Latin America, a Russian diplomat said on Monday.

Friday, July 24th marked the first Islamic Friday prayers in the Hagia Sophia since Turkey recently converted the former museum into a mosque and has been described as like a “rock concert” by Swedish media. Sanna Drysén, who works for

Islamist Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan confessed on Friday, attending the first Islamic prayers at the Hagia Sophia in 86 years, that converting the ancient Christian cathedral to a mosque was his childhood dream.

The United States Catholic bishops have joined the Greek Orthodox Church in proclaiming June 24 a day of “mourning and manifest grief” over Turkey’s decision to recommission the basilica of Santa Sophia as a mosque.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan visited the Hagia Sophia on Sunday shortly before the newly reconverted mosque opens to Muslim prayer on Friday, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has invited Pope Francis to visit Hagia Sophia, which will revert to being a full-time mosque on July 24.

A majority of Greeks have expressed dissatisfaction with the international response to the Turkish regime announcing it would be converting the Hagia Sophia into a mosque.

Turkey’s Culture and Tourism Ministry says it is setting up “a new museum” to house the Hagia Sophia’s “portable icons and Holy relics” indicating that the former cathedral’s Christian relics and iconography will be removed from the site, the Greek City Times reported Friday.

Turkey’s Religious Affairs Directorate (Diyanet) announced in a Tuesday statement that it would cover up images of the Virgin Mary and Jesus Christ in the Hagia Sophia, one of the holiest sites in Christianity, now that it has been converted into a mosque.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan declared on Friday that “resurrecting” a mosque inside the legendary Hagia Sophia cathedral is just the first step in a mission to “liberate the al-Aqsa mosque” – in other words, to eject the Jews from the holy site in Jerusalem they know as the Temple Mount.

Boston Celtics star Enes Kanter condemned the conversion of the Hagia Sophia, once one of the most important Christian cathedrals in the world, in an interview Sunday, accusing Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of converting what was officially a museum in a desperate bid to win votes.

EU foreign ministers on Monday criticized Turkey for changing the status of Hagia Sophia from a museum to a mosque.

Pope Francis on Sunday expressed his dismay at Turkey’s decision to make Istanbul’s Hagia Sophia museum a mosque, joining a growing list of religious and political leaders to condemn the move.

FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) – The interim secretary-general of the World Council of Churches has written to Turkey’s president expressing his “grief and dismay” over Turkey’s decision to change the status of Istanbul’s landmark Hagia Sophia from a museum to a mosque.

The ancient cathedral of Hagia Sophia in Istanbul – the former seat of eastern Christianity – could now be dedicated to use as a mosque after Turkey’s high court on Friday ruled its conversion into a museum in 1934 was unlawful.

Greek government spokesman Stelios Petsas has come out against the proposal from Turkey to convert Istanbul’s Hagia Sophia back into a mosque, saying such a move would strain relations between Christians and Turkey.

The government of Turkey issued a statement Wednesday saying Ankara was “shocked” at a statement from U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo urging Islamist President Recep Tayyip Erdogan not to turn the Hagia Sophia into a mosque.

ISTANBUL — In its more than 1,400-year existence, the majestic domed structure of Hagia Sophia in Istanbul has served as the Byzantine Empire’s main cathedral, a mosque under the Ottoman Empire and a museum under modern Turkey, attracting millions of tourists each year.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is once again exploring ways to convert the Hagia Sophia Museum in Istanbul into a mosque, Kurdish news agency Rudaw reported on Tuesday.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan proposed converting the fabled Hagia Sophia into a mosque on Sunday. The Greek government responded with anger on Monday, pointing out that the Hagia Sophia was the seat of Greek Orthodox Christianity for centuries and has been designated a World Heritage Site by the United Nations.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan floated the idea of turning Istanbul’s iconic Hagia Sophia back into a mosque in an interview Sunday.

CHRISTCHURCH, New Zealand (AP) – A few hundred demonstrators have protested the New Zealand mosque shootings outside Istanbul’s Hagia Sophia – a Byzantine-era cathedral that was turned into a mosque and now serves as a museum.

ISTANBUL – Turkey’s top court on Thursday turned down a plea to open the Hagia Sofia, an Istanbul landmark that is now a museum after serving as both a church and a mosque over its long history, for Muslim worshipping.

Three days after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan recited an Islamic prayer to honor the Ottoman conqueror of Istanbul, Russian President Vladimir Putin extended a greeting to the Greek Orthodox Patriarch Bartholomew I.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan led an audience at what was billed as a classical Turkish art event in reciting a Quranic prayer at the Hagia Sophia on Saturday, dedicating it to “Istanbul’s conquerer,” Ottoman Sultan Mehmed the Conqueror.

The Greek Foreign Ministry issued a statement on Thursday objecting to Muslim prayer services held at the Hagia Sophia in Istanbul, a televised event attended by Turkish officials.

The first Muslim call to prayer in the post-Atatürk era from within the Hagia Sophia occurred last week on July 1.

The Turkish government has sanctioned Quran recitations by a different senior Islamic cleric each day of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan so far this year at the secular Hagia Sophia Museum. Christian-majority Greece has condemned the move as the “creeping Islamization of the building,” reports Agence France-Presse (AFP).

The Turkish government is permitting the use of the Hagia Sophia, a Greek Orthodox basilica until the conquest of Constantinople in the Fifteenth Century, for Islamic Ramadan prayers throughout the month, a move Greek officials are decrying as “retrograde” and disrespectful.

Contents: Iran captures ten American sailors in Persian Gulf hours before Obama speech; Royal Bank of Scotland predicts sharp 2016 recession, says ‘Sell everything!’; Suicide bombing in Istanbul Turkey kills 10 tourists

In his latest book, Christian Persecution in the Middle East: A 21st Century Tragedy, author George J. Marlin explores the fall of Christianity in its birthplace, documenting the suffering of those people who face death simply for being a Christian.

In 1955, songwriter Pete Seeger wrote “Where Have All the Flowers Gone.” It begins with young girls picking flowers and ends with those flowers growing atop the graves of young men killed in war. The song’s anti-war message is clear in refrains repeated throughout, “Oh, when will they ever learn?”