Erdogan exploits Hagia Sophia’s symbolic power
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has strategically utilized the symbolic significance of Hagia Sophia, once the world’s largest Byzantine cathedral, which he reconverted into a mosque in 2020, in order to mobilize his devout and nationalist supporters ahead of Sunday’s runoff vote. “The entire West got mad – but I did it,” he said during a rally in Istanbul on Saturday. “Obviously, Erdogan has politically exploited the conversion of Hagia Sophia from a museum to a mosque in 2020,” says Natalia Poulou, a professor of Byzantine archaeology at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, while expressing regret over the relatively muted response from UNESCO. “It did react, but not as strongly as it should have, considering the significance of Hagia Sophia as a monument of world heritage.”
