Muslim group prays in front of Hagia Sophia to demand re-conversion into mosque

ISTANBUL

A large group of people, who demand Istanbul’s monumental Hagia Sophia to be turned into a mosque again, gathered in front of the museum in the early hours of May 13, before offering their morning prayer there. 

Organized by the Anatolia Youth Association (AGD), the group gathered in front of Hagia Sophia at around 4 a.m. with the motto “Break the chains, Open Hagia Sophia,” and prayed the morning prayer with a call for the reconversion of the museum into a mosque. 

From 537, the year it was constructed, until 1453, when the Ottoman Empire conquered the city, Hagia Sophia served as an Eastern Orthodox cathedral and the seat of the Patriarchate of Constantinopole, It was turned into a mosque by the Ottomans before being secularized and converted to a museum in 1935. 

The AGD made the call to mark the anniversary of the conquest. 

The crowd left the area after the prayer.