what’s happening in turkey : dilemma of Hague Sophie (By Hritik Sasode)
Today, thousands of Muslims prayed in the Hagia sophia or as now officially known as Ayasofya grand mosque for the first time in 86 years and with that prayers went out the secular nationalism of a democracy. The Hagia sophia , a museum indicating muslim-christian unity was turned into to a mosque by Mr. Recip tayyip Erdogan ( President of Turkey) Instead of reforming the kemalist state into more inclusive and democratic one Mr. Erdogan took the other road of systematically unmaking the secular republic that Turkey has been for so many years.
If we delve into the deep history of the museum itself it was occupied by Justinian 1 of the Byzantine Empire who turned it into a eastern orthodox patriarchal cathedral which stayed for almost 900 years and then in 1453 when the Ottoman Empire surrounded Constantinople (modern day Istanbul) the Byzantine Empire put up a fight but lost the area to Mehmed II (the conquerer) of the Ottoman Empire. Mehmed was set to be mesmerised by the structure and turned the Basilica into a mosque and for almost 482 years it stood as a mosque. After the fall of Ottoman Empire in the first world war the secularists led by Mustafa Kamal Ataturk ( the father of modern day Turkey) came to power and abolished the caliphate and closed down Hagia sophia. In 1935 , the building was reopened as a museum and since then Hagia sophia stood as a symbol of secularism and a UNESCO World Heritage site.
Ataturk followed an agresive policy of secularism as modeled in present day france , where you cannot show off your religion which grew discontent among the islamist section of turkish society
Who wanted the Hagia sophia museum to be turned back into a mosque. In 2002 Mr Erdogan of the Justice development party became the Prime Minister of Turkey with promising performance for three terms , in his presence turkey saw an expeditious rise of GDP but as according to an constitutional provision the limit to become a PM in Turkey is three terms which deemed Erdogan unfit for the Fourth term. But as Mr. Erdogan was not ready to yet go out rewrote the constitution with the help of his majority and turned Turkey into an all powerful executive presidency and became the President of the country and abolished the position of Prime Minister. But as time went on Turkey's economy started galloping down and as a true politician the only option left with Erdogan to win another term was to sympathize people through religion And as a result Hagia sophia was turned into a Mosque. At the moment Mr. Erdogan is at the top position on becoming the Number one modern dictator of the 21st century as he has even launched a war against journalists and critics at home as Turkey has the highest rate of journalist and critics being imprisoned , So if i was in Turkey I would have been behind bars as soon as this comes out.
The usage of Expansionism as a tool in religious matters has certainly been a major factor in the political propaganda of the 21st century. "When we fail to deliver in the present, we glorify the past" sums up the most of crux of the issue. This decision not only sends harms the secualr values around the world it also sets a bad image on what stance is democracy standing as Turkey is one of the most democratic - secular islamic country. Mr Erdogan is opening up past wounds and someone needs to remind him it's 2020 not 1453.
With that being said democracies around the world including ours are put to threat due to past religious conflicts and after all this Expansionism in the name of religion even if democracy survives , we need to ask ourselves will we be satisfied with the democracy that does survive ?
-Hritik Sasode
