Turkish President recites Muslim prayer at the Hagia Sophia

Turkey's president has recited an Islamic prayer in the Hagia Sophia, a historic Istanbul landmark that has become a symbol of interfaith and diplomatic tensions.

Image. Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, center, accompanied by his wife Emine, right, waves to supporters as he walks in the Byzantine-era Hagia Sophia an UNESCO world heritage site and one of Istanbul's main tourist attractions, in the historic Sultanahmet district of Istanbul, Saturday, March 31, 2018.

Turkey's president has recited an Islamic prayer in the Hagia Sophia, an Istanbul landmark that has become a symbol of interfaith and diplomatic tensions. Erdogan recited the Quran's first verse to the "souls of all, especially Istanbul's conqueror."

Turkey's president recited an Islamic prayer Saturday in the Hagia Sophia, a historic Istanbul landmark that has become a symbol of interfaith and diplomatic tensions.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan called on guests attending the opening of an art festival to join him in silently reciting the first verse of the Quran. Erdogan dedicated the prayer to the "souls of all who left us this work as inheritance, especially Istanbul's conqueror."

The Hagia Sophia was built as an Orthodox Christian church and converted into a mosque in 1453. In 1935, twelve years after the foundation of the Turkish republic, President Mustafa Kemal Atatürk signed a decree that turned Hagia Sophia into a secular museum.

According to the Encyclopedia of the Ottoman Empire, Atatürk’s decision not only turned Hagia Sophia into “an artifact of the past” but rendered it “a site of memory instead of … a symbol of lived religious experience.”

Erdogan's Islamic-leaning government has discussed converting the structure back into a mosque since they grabbed power in 2002.

Thousands of Muslim Turks have prayed outside the Hagia Sophia over the years to demand that it be restored as a place of worship.

In 2015, a cleric recited from the Quran inside the building, a UNESCO World Heritage site, for the first time in 85 years.

The following year, Turkey's religious authority began hosting and broadcasting religious readings during the holy month of Ramadan and the call to prayer was recited to mark the first revelation of the Quran to Prophet Mohammed.

Erdogan said Saturday that it was "difficult and emotional" to be speaking at the Hagia Sophia, which he described as a "magnificent and holy." He was speaking at the opening of the first Yeditepe Biennial focusing on classical Turkish art.

Greece has protested the Turkish government's religious use of the venue, calling it last summer an "affront to the international community."

The Turkish Foreign Ministry condemned the Greek statement, saying it distorted the events and arguing that Greece made it difficult for Muslims to practice their faith.

Heather Nauert, a spokeswoman for the U.S. State Department at the time, said the venue had a "great significance to other faiths, many faiths" and called on Turkey to "preserve the Hagia Sophia in a way that respects its complex history."

SOURCE