A month after Hagia Sophia, Erdogan converts historic Byzantine church in Istanbul from museum into MOSQUE

On Friday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan ordered to transfer a historic church in Istanbul into the care of the Religious Affairs Directorate and opening its doors to Muslim worshipers. A similar reconversion happened a month ago, when Hagia Sophia, which also had originated as an Orthodox house of prayer, was turned from a museum into a mosque

The decision to return the museum to its Ottoman-era role was passed by Turkey’s top administrative court in November. It was not immediately clear how long it would take before Muslim services could resume at the site, after Erdogan’s decree was published in Turkey’s official gazette on Friday, thus coming into force.

Last month, Hagia Sophia underwent a similar controversial reconversion from a museum back into a functioning mosque. Erdogan, whose party courts political Islam for domestic and international support, attended the first Friday prayer held at the former Byzantine cathedral along with thousands of other worshipers.