SHAFAQNA- Thousands of Muslims attend Friday prayers at Hagia Sophia Grand Mosque in Istanbul for first time in 86 years after its reconversion into a Mosque earlier this month. Crowds formed at checkpoints surrounding the historic heart of Istanbul, where thousands of police maintained security. On entering the secured area the worshippers, wearing face masks, sat spaced out on prayer mats in the city’s Sultanahmet Square.
“God is the greatest,” chanted people in the square. Some slept after arriving overnight and others ate on the grass, shaded by trees from the hot sun. Some in the crowds held Turkish and Ottoman flags. “We are ending our 86 years of longing today,” said a worshiper, referring to the nearly nine decades since Hagia Sophia was declared a museum and ceased to be a place of worship.
Erdoğan joined thousands of worshippers at Hagia Sophia alongside top ministers wearing white face masks as a precaution against COVID-19. They knelt on blue carpets at the start of a ceremony which marks the return of Muslim worship to the ancient monument, duvar english reported.
Al Jazeera’s Sinem Koseoglu, reporting from Istanbul, said Friday was “a very big day” in the city of some 18 million. “The heart of the city, the historical peninsula, is under total lockdown since last night,” she said. “It’s closed to traffic because large crowds were expected to arrive in the area outside of Hagia Sophia.”
The 1500-year-old UNESCO World Heritage site was transformed from a museum into a mosque after Turkey’s top administrative court ruled to annul Hagia Sophia’s status as a museum earlier this month. Erdogan later announced that the Mosque would be used for Friday prayers, with three imams appointed for congregational prayers, yjc reported.