Turkish Deputy Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu has once again appeared to be resolute on the issue of Hagia Sophia, calling on the international community to stop criticism.
In particular, commenting on the statement of EU’s HR/VP Josep Borrell on Hagia Sophia, he stated that “as I have said before, if Borrell said ‘it would be better not to open,’ I would respect it. “If he said, ‘It would be better to have a museum,’ I would still respect it, but we reject the word ‘condemnation’.”
He added that “there are also monuments in Spain that were built as mosques and then turned into churches. Now we also have to say to Spain ‘Turn them into mosques, do we condemn you? In addition, this is an issue related to Turkey’s sovereign rights.”
The Turkish foreign minister argued that while Turkey was very constructive on the issue of Hagia Sophia, it did not seem correct to condemn it.