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This is even more reason to contribute to activists trying to stop the conversion of Hagia Sophia into a Mosque. It is a piece of 6th century history that we as
by treehau5 10y ago
This is even more reason to contribute to activists trying to stop the conversion of Hagia Sophia into a Mosque. It is a piece of 6th century history that we as a civilization just cannot afford to lose.
- tdb7893 10y agoI thought it was already used as one? I don't particularly care what it's used for as long as it's generally open to the public, are they planning on closing it off to people or tearing it down or something?
- treehau5 10y agoIf anything it should be a Orthodox Church, but since no one can agree on that, it should be transferred to UNESCO, and treated as a cultural site and museum. If it resumes being used as a Mosque, to avoid any slippery slope fallacies, it will most likely result in a lot of the preservation of the historicity of the location being lost.
- tdb7893 10y agoI feel like it's use as a mosque is part of its history now. as long as they don't destroy any of the history it doesn't bother me that it is a mosque. EDIT: it's -> its
- tptacek 10y agoYes, definitely a good reason to re-litigate historical events from 1451.
- treehau5 10y agoConsidering the Greeks were not liberated from the Ottoman yoke until 1829, with genocides and killings from "modern" Turkey not stopping until the early 1910's, I'd say it's not exactly ancient history, either. To put it into context, "Greek Independence Day" comes after American Independence Day.
- return0 10y agoTurkification as a general policy continues to this day and probably will continue. I don't see how it 's related to Ayia Sofia though, when the temple was built people still called themselves roman.
- sampo 10y agoThe Hagia Sophia was converted from mosque to museum in 1931-1935, so you must mean re-litigating historical events from 1930s?
- tptacek 10y agoThat would be a more effective rebuttal if the parent commenter hadn't confirmed the interpretation I took.
- nomercy400 10y agoMeanwhile, could you send those activists to the Pantheon (2nd century history) in Rome, where the 'temple for all gods' is now a Roman-Catholic church.
- return0 10y agoAs long as the monument is not vandalized, they can do whatever they want with it. It serves them better as a museum, testament to the universal glory of the city, but it's not like it hasn't been used as a mosque before. Of course Edrogan uses the situation to raise tensions between greece and turkey (and possibly russia), which gives him extra machismo points.