# A Council of State ruling and presidential decree reopen Hagia Sophia as a mosque

Date: 2020

## The fact

On 10 July 2020 Turkey’s Council of State annulled the 1934 museum status of Hagia Sophia and [Erdoğan](/people/recep-tayyip-erdogan) signed a decree transferring it to the Directorate of Religious Affairs for use as a mosque.

## Context

UNESCO noted the World Heritage implications. First Friday prayers followed. The court ruled; the presidency decreed; Diyanet administers. He did not lay the sixth-century bricks.

Later Chora church conversion is a neighbouring later instrument if separately dated.

The president of Turkey is head of state and, since the 2017 executive-presidency reform, head of government. The Grand [National Assembly](/organizations/national-assembly) writes statutes; the Official Gazette records decrees; courts, governors, and the armed forces implement. He does not write a European Council conclusion, an IMF programme, or a UN General Assembly resolution.

## Evidence and sources

Presidency of the Republic of Türkiye carries the official instrument or communique. Reuters records the same dated act independently.

## Significance

The path is [protection of minority rights](/drivers/protection-of-minority-rights) and [social cohesion](/drivers/social-cohesion): converting a museum-cathedral-mosque World Heritage site by decree is a completed identity-politics instrument with mixed tourism and rights readings.

## What is established and what is not

Established: a 10 July 2020 court-and-decree cluster reopening Hagia Sophia as a mosque.

Not established: a unique later visitor-count coefficient, or that UNESCO delisted the site that day.

What would change the picture: a contradictory original with a different date or name, a later repeal, a court that vacated the instrument, or a measured series that can be argued, with lag and alternatives, as a consequence of this instrument rather than of later institutions.

The date is the date of this instrument, not a licence to back-date every later harm or benefit.

Diyanet administers. UNESCO commented.. A later repeal, court stay, or successor order would be a different Fact with a different date. That pair identifies A Council of State ruling and presidential decree reopen Hagia Sophia as a mosque, not a later speech about A Council of State ruling and presidential decree reopen Hagia Sophia as a mosque.

Co-authors and later implementers named in Context remain on the file. A Council of State ruling and presidential decree reopen Hagia Sophia as a mosque on 2020-07-10 is not a licence to treat every later Presidency of the Republic of Türkiye communique as this same act. If a later repeal, stay, or successor decree exists, it needs its own date and its own row. This dossier refuses to average A Council of State ruling and presidential decree reopen Hagia Sophia as a mosque into a personality. The contribution described on this Person row is limited to He signed the transfer decree after the Council of State ruling. Diyanet administers. UNESCO commented. That limit is the alternative to treating office-holding as authorship of every later series. The Grand National Assembly, the Official Gazette, governors, courts, and foreign counterparties share specific files. Allegation is not a completed judgment. A detention is not a conviction.

## People

- Recep Tayyip Erdoğan: https://factrail.ai/people/recep-tayyip-erdogan

## Drivers

- Protection of Minority Rights: https://factrail.ai/drivers/protection-of-minority-rights
- Social Cohesion: https://factrail.ai/drivers/social-cohesion

## Sources

- https://apnews.com/general-news-4bc9aeea3f21e438187a6c2b76c52aa0
- https://www.reuters.com/article/us-turkey-hagiasophia-idUSKBN24B1MA

## Methodology

https://factrail.ai/methodology

Canonical: https://factrail.ai/facts/tr-hagia-sophia-2020