It will come on the anniversary of the city’s 1453 conquest by Ottoman troops, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said according to reports Thursday.
Erdogan has repeatedly said that Hagia Sophia, a UNESCO World Heritage site which now serves as a museum, could be reconverted into a mosque.
Built in the 6th century, Hagia Sophia was the main seat of the Greek Orthodox church. It remained so until it was converted into a mosque after the Ottoman conquest of the city, then-known as Constantinople, in 1453.
Turkey’s secular founder turned the structure into a museum in 1935 that attracts millions of tourists each year.
Source: ekathimerini.com