Phanar archons request Trump to prevent Hagia Sophia's conversion to mosque

Hagia Sophia temple. Photo: archons.org

Archons of the Patriarchate of Constantinople appealed to US President Donald Trump to prevent Turkey from converting Hagia Sophia to a mosque. A letter to the American President was published on the archons’ website.

The preamble to the letter says that Turkey’s attempts to turn Hagia Sophia into a mosque are “another manifestation of the Turkish government's contempt for that nation's Christian heritage, and for the remaining Christians of Turkey.”

In addition, the archons emphasize that the position of Turkey on this issue "reveals yet again the mindset that leads to the Ecumenical Patriarchate being systematically deprived of basic legal rights."

For this reason, Dr. Anthony Limberakis, National Commander of the Order of St. Andrew the Apostle, “has addressed an urgent appeal to President Trump, asking that he intercede with the government of Turkey to prevent this new insult to the Christians of Turkey and the world at large.”

Archons believe that Turkey’s plan to convert Hagia Sophia into a mosque “directly challenges that religious freedom. It is part of ongoing efforts to delegitimize the remaining Christian population of Turkey, further eroding their religious freedom, and to obliterate a significant element of the Christian heritage of Turkey and the surrounding region, as well as of the entire world.”

“Converting Hagia Sophia Museum, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, to a mosque would render it the patrimony of one nation” and appears as “an unjust and provocative act as this historic site truly belongs to the world,” the letter says.

Dr. Anthony Limberakis emphasized that the archons urged Tramp to “ensure that the government of Turkey will affirm its commitment to religious freedom and discard all plans to change the status of the Hagia Sophia”, otherwise “it will wipe out the quintessential historical presence of Christ and the Christian Church in modern-day Turkey."

Earlier, the UOJ wrote that, according to the theologian and publicist Sergei Khudiyev, the silence of Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople regarding the intentions of the Turkish authorities to convert the Istanbul Hagia Sophia into a mosque shows that the Head of Phanar cannot lead Orthodoxy.

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