The headscarf and skirt were distributed to the female visitors by the officers. Although Gli was not very interested in those who loved him and wanted to play, he did not turn down the food served to him.The mosque, which was kept open 24 hours a day, was the focus of intense interest in the night before. Due to the weekend, many citizens who wanted to perform the morning prayer in the mosque waited for the morning prayer on the benches and grass. Akanksha Saxena . Erdogan shared a video on Twitter on Wednesday which featured Muslims from across the Islamic world singing in tribute to Hagia Sophia.Erdogan, who professes nostalgia for the Ottoman empire, has called for the treaty's revision in recent years.There were Quranic recitations in the morning in Hagia Sophia before the Friday prayer which Erdogan, Turkish officials and foreign dignitaries will attend.tap to bring up your browser menu and select 'Add to homescreen' to pin the The News web appSome experts are concerned about the speed of the conversion as turquoise carpet was laid for the faithful to pray.Experts say Erdogan's move to reconvert Hagia Sophia is an attempt to galvanise his conservative and nationalist base amid economic uncertainty exacerbated by the virus outbreak and some polls suggesting his ruling party is losing votes.But the Friday prayer is set against a backdrop of tense relations between NATO allies Ankara and Athens, particularly related to Turkish hydrocarbon exploration in the eastern Mediterranean.Despite the coronavirus pandemic, tight crowds formed on Friday morning around the former cathedral for the prayer scheduled for around 1000 GMT, AFP correspondents said.
DW News Hagia Sophia holds Muslim Friday prayers. Among the prayers, Fatih Municipality officials disinfected all parts of the mosque against the risk of coronavirus. "(Today) is a day of mourning for all of... Christianity," Ieronymos said.In Turkey, Hagia Sophia remains closely associated with the Ottoman conquest of Constantinople by Sultan Mehmet II, known as the Conqueror.The Byzantine mosaics, plastered over for centuries when the building served as a mosque, will be hidden with curtains during prayer times since Islam bans figurative representations. Some came to Hagia Sophia and worshiped, some traveled inside and took photos. Several people had spent the night in the area.Erdogan then ordered the building to reopen for Muslim worship, deeply angering the Christian community and further straining relations with NATO ally Greece.Around 3.8 million tourists visited Hagia Sophia last year.Church bells around Greece will peal at midday on Friday with their flags at half-mast to protest what the head of the Church of Greece, Archbishop Ieronymos, has called an "unholy act of defiling" of the former cathedral.The timing of the first prayer is significant.
Friday is the 97th anniversary of the Treaty of Lausanne, which set modern Turkey's borders after years of conflict with Greece and Western powers.The Council of State, the highest administrative court, on July 10 unanimously cancelled a 1934 decision by modern Turkey's founder Mustafa Kemal Ataturk to turn it into a museum, saying it was registered as a mosque in its property deeds.Greece strongly denounced the reconversion of Hagia Sophia to a mosque, seeing it as an "open provocation to the entire civilised world.
Hagia Sophia sights After the Friday prayer of President Tayyip Erdogan with the citizens on the 24th of July at the Hagia Sophia Mosque, the intensity did not slow down. "You have always been ours, and we are yours," the Turkish leader wrote.Erdogan's decision has also undone part of the secular legacy of Ataturk, who wanted Hagia Sophia as a museum so as to "offer it to humanity".Ankara rejects international criticism in the name of "sovereignty" and insists tourists will still be able to visit the mosque and see the mosaics.Up to 1,000 people will pray inside the building with many more able to pray outside but faced with such a large flow of people, including some not wearing masks, Istanbul Governor Ali Yerlikaya said the spaces around Hagia Sophia were swiftly filled.The UNESCO World Heritage site in historic Istanbul was first built as a cathedral in the Christian Byzantine Empire but was converted into a mosque after the Ottoman conquest of Constantinople in 1453. Istanbul's Hagia Sophia will host Muslim Friday prayers for the first time since being converted from a museum back into a mosque. HEALTH EDUCATION THE NEWSHOUR INDIA UPFRONT PHOTOS ASTROLOGY TODAY LATEST NEWS TRENDING NEWS LIVE TV.