Hagia Sofia to remain a museum, Turkish Constitutional Court rules

Turkey’s Constitutional Court rejected a petition to turn Hagia Sophia into a Mosque.

The petition was filed three years ago by the Turkish Union of the Service of Permanent Vakifs (properties endowed to religious institutions) of Historic Monuments and the Environment.

It requested that Muslim prayers and readings from the Quran be allowed in Hagia Sophia, which is now a museum.

The same NGO in 2004 had asked the prime minister to enact a legislative revision so that Hagia Sophia could open as a Mosque, but received no reply.

In 2005, the petitioners filed suit in the Council of State, which rejected the request. Ten years later, in 2015, it petitioned the Constitutional Court, with the claim that a refusal to turn Hagia Sophia into a Mosque constitutes a violation of freedom of religion.