Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Friday formally reconverted Istanbul's sixth-century iconic Hagia Sophia into a mosque and declared it open to Muslim worship, hours after a high court ...

Politicians and scholars from around the world have expressed alarm at the possible ruling. Hagia Sophia, a former Greek Orthodox Christian cathedral, later an Ottoman mosque. Photo by Frank Bienewald ...

ANKARA, Turkey — The Turkish government formally converted a former Byzantine church into a mosque Friday, a move that came a month after it drew praise from the faithful and international opposition ...

Turkey President Recep Tayyip Erdogan attended the first prayer service at the Hagia Sophia in over 86 years. Thousands gathered from across Turkey to attend the service – the first since Erdogan ...

Istanbul’s Hagia Sophia will be converted into a mosque after 85 years as a museum, according to a decree issued today, July 10, by Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The decision has drawn ...

Seraffettin was at home under coronavirus ­lockdown on May 29 when a Muslim cleric recited Quranic verses atop a carpeted dais inside Istanbul’s Hagia Sophia museum. But the imam’s reading, to mark ...

ISTANBUL — In its more than 1,400-year existence, the majestic domed structure of Hagia Sophia in Istanbul has served as the Byzantine Empire’s main cathedral, a mosque under the Ottoman Empire and a ...

Reporting from Istanbul, Turkey — As the time for afternoon prayers approaches, Onder Soy puts on a white robe and cap and switches on the microphone in a small 19th century room adjoining the Hagia ...

Empires have risen and fallen, but the dome of the great basilica remains, dominating the skyline of Istanbul for the past 14 centuries. Built by the Roman emperor Justinian in 532 as the Church of ...

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — The Turkish government formally converted a former Byzantine church into a mosque Friday, a move that came a month after it drew praise from the faithful and international ...