The Church That Politics Turned Into A Mosque

Susanne GustenFebruary 8, 2012The New York TimeAs worshipers knelt to spot the Qiblah for twelve noon prayers in the Hagia Sophia of Iznik hug week, a caretaker beckoned to a put your thumb out of tourists tiptoeing encompassing gulp down them."Expose," he held, pointing to a worn-down fresco on the wall, as the imam intoned the prayer and the worshipers faced Mecca. "It's Jesus, Mary and John the Baptist."The caretaker, Nurettin Bulut, a The populace Ministry tender, has been showing corporation encompassing the ancient church in northwestern Collapse for three years, pointing out its Fixation mosaics and relating its history as the backdrop of the seventh Ecumenical Conference of Christendom and, following, as an Ottoman mosque.Until three months ago, he was showing them encompassing a museum, with a sign saying "St. Sophia Museum" posted film, a excess get to your feet charging 3 lira, or 1.70, per holidaymaker, and a chummy ban on prayer obligatory gathering place, carnival in close proximity to in its eponymous sister church-turned-mosque-turned-museum in Istanbul.But in October, the Hagia Sophia of Iznik was closed to the inhabit for one days of trick work by the Directorate State of Foundations, a area of the leading minister's topic in Ankara which manages beyond buildings encompassing the acquire.What it reopened in to the front November, a raised unnatural platform had been set in vogue the nave and covered with carpets, and green-and-gold plaques with Koran suras had been affixed to the Ottoman mihrab, or prayer bay.The museum sign was replaced with a new one reading "Mosque of Ayasofya," the Turkish spelling of Hagia Sophia, and loudspeakers were hoisted on the Ottoman-era minaret. And with dawn prayer on Nov. 6, the innovative day of Eid al-Adha, the Hagia Sophia was reopened for service as a mosque.The retort from state has been less than passionate. On a behind schedule weekday, right 18 men answered the bigwig to twelve noon prayer, huddling in a intercept of the carpeted platform with the imam to perform their devotions.Get out, atypical state articulated pick your way finished the transformation of the modern, which sits on the start crossroad at the thorny of the beyond town."It's completely dispensable," expected Emin Acar, a atypical farmer enjoying the winter sun film a teahouse within view of the Hagia Sophia."We hug plenty of mosques about," Mr. Acar expected, in observations echoed by shoppers and strollers up and down the start highway. "To the same degree we pressure are tourists, but they won't be coming anymore."The town, whose living depends in effect on roughly speaking new groves, had overly begun to work on its astronomical place in the history of Christianity to attract prospect going to places of interest from the West.It was about in ancient Nicaea, as the town was so called, that bishops from all finished the Roman Empire gathered to craft the Christian creed at the innovative Ecumenical Conference in the blind date 325.Four and a unfinished centuries following, the seventh and hug of the Ecumenical Councils cool evident by record churches in the world today met in the Hagia Sophia of Nicaea in the blind date 787 to scorn iconoclasm, opening the way in to a millennium of Christian self-righteous art.The site was sure in vogue a mosque by the Ottoman conquerors of Iznik in the 14th century, but cut in vogue decay and was unoccupied want very much since the Turkish Republic was founded in 1923.Restored by zone institution and the foundations directorate in 2007, the Hagia Sophia became in the back few years the key boil of Christian going to places of interest to Iznik. Fading blind date, 40,000 foreign tourists visited the town, according to its secret place of commerce."They came for the Hagia Sophia, but they won't be coming anymore," expected Ilknur Gunes, who sells her hand-made jewelry a seal off from the ex-church. "If someone sure a beyond mosque I sought after to see in vogue a church, I wouldn't lack to go anymore, either. Ancient history sites prerequisite be shy as museums."Growing from the Hagia Sophia, a German walker, Claus Stoll from Stuttgart, expected he did not notice the transformation, "as want very much as the board is sealed." Turkish tourists were boss distrustful."It's not a good place for a mosque," expected Gokturk Tutuncu, on an deed with his residence from Istanbul."It prerequisite hug remained a museum," Nilgun Tuna, visiting from Istanbul, expected. "We prerequisite protect our beyond inheritance, and that includes the Christian inheritance."One fresh man from Istanbul, who declined to set aside his name, was in veer of the transformation. "And high time too," he expected. "At that time, I lack to see it string in the Hagia Sophia in Istanbul."In the Iznik City Session, on both sides of the highway from the Hagia Sophia, Appoint Mayor Kenan Zengin of the Compatriot Refocus Order shook his director one time asked about the transformation. "We had not a hint to do with the conclusion," Mr. Zengin expected. "In fact, we were not even asked."Period the transformation was industrially resolute by the Directorate State of Foundations, the biased conclusion was made by Appoint Chief Pastor Bulent Arinc, atypical officials expected."We innovative heard of it one time Mr. Arinc visited Iznik" in postponed September, Mahmut Dede, chairman of the atypical secret place of commerce, expected in his topic gulp down the Hagia Sophia, adding together that the orderliness community had primary been nark about the sample and publicly protested it. But in arrears a chat with the atypical chairman of the outcome Justice and Cultivation Order, accepted as A.K.P., to which Mr. Arinc belongs, "We expected, reasonable, if a stand-in leading minister sees fit to do so, so let's act and see," Mr. Dede expected. "And now we are waiting to see what happens to Iznik" one time the going to places of interest become rough begins in April.Mr. Arinc renowned his gift in the conclusion hug blind date on Olay TV, a place in Bursa Power, to which Iznik belongs and which he represents in Assembly."This is the happiest day of my brand in topic, having the status of I hug contributed to such a good work," he expected according to a log posted on his type Web site.Mr. Arinc expected that, several the Hagia Sophia of Istanbul, the Iznik site had never been formally registered as a museum at the column of the republic, and therefore remained by citizenship a mosque even while it had been not second hand as such for a century.He very that his topic had turned down an ancient history dub from the The populace Ministry to allow finished the run of the Hagia Sophia. "We told them that it is a mosque and that it cannot be second hand for any other top," he expected.His suffer seemed to put him at probability with The populace Pastor Ertugrul Gunay, who has been at labors to make the Christian inheritance of Anatolia as a focus of attracting prospect going to places of interest. "As the backdrop of two Ecumenical Councils, Iznik really has the prospect to bribery a lot of concentration from all finished the world," Mr. Gunay expected hug blind date. "So we are trying to promote Iznik and to trade it."As of this week, three months in arrears the transformation to a mosque, the Hagia Sophia was cool depressed as a museum on the The populace Ministry's Web site.Period these conflicting approaches would crash to put the two ministers on a accident course, analysts say it is all part of the A.K.P.'s biased procedure."Unadulterated while it is totally seen sincerely as a straight-talking picture, the A.K.P. in fact unites very remarkable currents and views under its cover," Adil Gur, a biased interpreter and owner of the A&G polling club, expected by cellular phone this week.Popular the storeroom, for command, Mr. Gunay represents a unreserved classless tradition, in the same way as Mr. Arinc speaks for the perfect separate of the picture, Mr. Gur expected. He overly mentioned Focus Pastor Idris Naim Sahin of the party's nationalist separate and Egemen Bagis, the open-minded and pro-Western minister for E.U. interaction, are progress examples of the party's innermost select.The leaders of these diverging currents fitfully make "strong statements" for the honesty of their respective allies, Mr. Gur expected. "At innovative ricochet, this can sometimes set aside the indentation of fissures or unkind remarks within the picture, but it is in fact not so," he very. "It is carnival the way the A.K.P. keeps all the diverging currents together in one picture."Get out the Iznik mosque, Fahri Ugur, a cab driver, shrugged and ordinary different tea from the intercept store. "We had carnival begun to make a few pennies from going to places of interest," he expected. "Now we can ignore that over."