UNESCO deeply regrets Turkey's decision on the Cathedral of Hagia Sophia

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) regrets Turkey's decision to change the status of Hagia Sophia in Istanbul. This is stated in the organization's communiqué distributed on July 10. UNESCO Director General Audrey Azule deeply regrets the decision of the Turkish authorities, made without prior dialogue, the organization said. Recall that today the Turkish State Council canceled the decision of the country's government of 1934, according to which the cathedral was given the status of a museum. Immediately after that, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that he had signed a decree on the start of services in the cathedral. Earlier, UNESCO has already appealed to the Turkish authorities not to change the status of the cathedral. The organization pointed out that St. Sophia, being part of the Historical Districts of Istanbul, is included in the UNESCO World Heritage List, which entails a number of legal obligations. It was not excluded that the World Heritage Committee could exclude the cathedral from the list if it was converted into a mosque. The Cathedral of Hagia Sophia was built by order of the Byzantine emperor Justinian and opened in December 537. For almost a thousand years, it was the largest Christian temple in the world. The Ottoman Turks who captured Constantinople in 1453 converted the cathedral into a mosque, but since 1934, by decree of Kemal Ataturk, the building has become a museum.