Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, speaking in a comprehensive TV interview during his election campaign and answering the question of whether it would be possible for Hagia Sophia to have free admission, replied provocatively that this was not an absurd proposition and he continued:
“Why not?” This can be easily done. In fact, we can see it seriously by changing its title from a “museum” to “Hagia Sophia’s Mosque”. It will be the same for the tourists, as when they enter the Sultan Ahmet Mosque, the Suleymaniye or the Fatih Mosque without a fee. We will get it out from the museum status. You already know that this regime was introduced at a later date. And that was a step taken due to the mentality of the Republican party. We can change this step made by the Republican party’s mentality.”
It should be noted that just a week ago Erdogan spoke in a pre-election gathering and responded to his fans about the reopening of Hagia Sophia as a mosque: “Instead of filling the Sultan Ahmet that is next door, you want to fill Hagia Sophia. We made the mosque in Chamlija 4-5 times as large as Hagia Sophia, let us not be carried away by these games. All this is a setup.”
Source: ANA-MPA
