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Pope 'Very Pained' by Decision to Turn Istanbul's Hagia Sophia Museum into Mosque

The dome of the Hagia Sophia. (AFP)
The dome of the Hagia Sophia. (AFP)
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Pope 'Very Pained' by Decision to Turn Istanbul's Hagia Sophia Museum into Mosque

The dome of the Hagia Sophia. (AFP)
The dome of the Hagia Sophia. (AFP)

Pope Francis said on Sunday he was hurt by Turkey’s decision to make Istanbul’s Hagia Sophia museum a mosque, the latest religious leader to condemn the move.

“My thoughts go to Istanbul. I think of Santa Sophia and I am very pained,” he said during his weekly blessing in St. Peter’s Square.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said the first prayers would be held in Hagia Sophia on July 24, after declaring the ancient monument was once again a mosque following a court ruling revoking its status as a museum.

The World Council of Churches has called on Erdogan to reverse his decision and Patriarch Bartholomew, the Istanbul-based spiritual leader of the world’s Orthodox Christians, called it disappointing.

Erdogan said the nearly 1,500-year-old Hagia Sophia, which was once a Christian cathedral, would remain open to Muslims, Christians and foreigners.

He added that Turkey had exercised its sovereign right in converting it to a mosque and would interpret criticism of the move as an attack on its independence.

Greece has condemned the move and UNESCO said its World Heritage Committee would review Hagia Sophia’s status and that Turkey’s decision raised questions about the impact on its universal value as a site of importance transcending borders and generations.

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Ocalan is Reported to Suggest he Might be Ready to End Insurgency

FILE PHOTO: Supporters of the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party) display flags with a portrait of jailed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) leader Abdullah Ocalan, in Istanbul, Türkiye, March 17, 2024. REUTERS/Umit Bektas/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: Supporters of the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party) display flags with a portrait of jailed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) leader Abdullah Ocalan, in Istanbul, Türkiye, March 17, 2024. REUTERS/Umit Bektas/File Photo
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Ocalan is Reported to Suggest he Might be Ready to End Insurgency

FILE PHOTO: Supporters of the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party) display flags with a portrait of jailed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) leader Abdullah Ocalan, in Istanbul, Türkiye, March 17, 2024. REUTERS/Umit Bektas/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: Supporters of the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party) display flags with a portrait of jailed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) leader Abdullah Ocalan, in Istanbul, Türkiye, March 17, 2024. REUTERS/Umit Bektas/File Photo

The jailed leader of Türkiye's outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), Abdullah Ocalan, has been quoted as indicating he may be prepared to call for militants to lay down arms, after a key ally of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan urged him to end the group's decades-old insurgency.

Two parliamentarians from the pro-Kurdish DEM Party met Ocalan for talks on his island prison on Saturday, in the first such visit nearly in a decade, Reuters reported.

DEM requested the visit after a key Erdogan ally expanded on a proposal to end the 40-year-old conflict between the state and Ocalan's PKK.

"I am ready to take (the) necessary positive step and make the call," Ocalan was quoted as saying, according to a statement by the MPs on Sunday.

Ocalan did not specify what the call would be but his comments came after the leader of the Nationalist Movement Party, Devlet Bahceli, said Ocalan should make a call for the militants to lay down arms.

DEM requested the visit soon after Bahceli expanded on a proposal to end the conflict, suggesting in October that Ocalan should announce an end to the insurgency in exchange for the possibility of his release.

Erdogan described Bahceli's initial proposal as a "historic window of opportunity" but has not spoken of any peace process.
Ocalan has been serving a life sentence in a prison on the island of Imrali, south of Istanbul, since his capture 25 years ago.

Recent developments in Syria and Gaza showed that the solution for the Kurdish issue has become "undelayable,” Ocalan was also quoted as saying, adding that opposition and Parliament should also contribute to the new process, in a veiled reference to possible legal amendments.

One major development in the region has been the ouster of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in Syria this month. Türkiye has repeatedly said there would be no place for the Kurdish YPG, which Ankara sees as an extension of the PKK, in Syria's future.

"I am also qualified and determined to make the necessary positive contribution to the new paradigm that Mr. Bahceli and Mr. Erdogan have empowered," Ocalan said, according to the DEM statement.

Türkiye and its Western allies deem the PKK a terrorist group. More than 40,000 people have been killed in the fighting, which in the past was focused in the mainly Kurdish southeast but is now centered on northern Iraq, where the PKK is based.