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Greece, Hagia Sophia move "provocation to civilised world"

After Erdogan announced site to be turn into a mosque

12 July, 19:57
(ANSA-AFP) - ATHENS, 12 JUL - A decision by Turkey to turn the former Byzantine cathedral of Hagia Sophia into a mosque is an "open provocation to the entire civilised world", Greece said Friday. "The nationalism displayed by (Turkish) President (Recep Tayyip) Erdogan... takes his country back six centuries," Culture Minister Lina Mendoni said in a statement.

Erdogan's announcement that the UNESCO World Heritage site would be handed over to Turkey's religious affairs directorate came after a top Turkish court revoked the sixth-century landmark's status as a museum. Mendoni said the court ruling "absolutely confirms that there is no independent justice" in Turkey. Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I, the spiritual leader of the world's Orthodox Christians, last month warned that turning Hagia Sophia back into a mosque would "turn millions of Christians around the world against Islam". The United States had warned against the move, as had Russian officials and the Russian Orthodox church. (ANSA-AFP). (ANSA).

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