Hagia Sophia Mosque Decision 'Regrettable': EU

TEHRAN (IQNA) – The European Union lamented on Friday Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan’s decision to declare Istanbul’s Hagia Sophia open to Muslim prayer as a mosque, after a top court ruled that the building’s conversion to a museum was illegal.

“The ruling by the Turkish Council of State to overturn one of modern Turkey’s landmark decisions and President Erdogan’s decision to place the monument under the management of the Religious Affairs Presidency is regrettable,” EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said in a statement.

Erdogan signed a decree on Friday opening Hagia Sophia as a mosque after a Turkish court annulled a 1934 government decree that had turned it into a museum, a copy of the decision showed, Reuters reported.

Erdogan shared on his Twitter feed a copy of the decree he had signed which said the decision had been taken to hand control of the Ayasofya Mosque, as it is known in Turkish, to the country’s religious directorate and reopen it for worship.