Turkey Names 3 Imams for Hagia Sophia

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan delivers a televised address to the nation in Ankara, Turkey, July 10, 2020. Turkish Presidential Press Office/Handout via REUTERS
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan delivers a televised address to the nation in Ankara, Turkey, July 10, 2020. Turkish Presidential Press Office/Handout via REUTERS
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Turkey Names 3 Imams for Hagia Sophia

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan delivers a televised address to the nation in Ankara, Turkey, July 10, 2020. Turkish Presidential Press Office/Handout via REUTERS
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan delivers a televised address to the nation in Ankara, Turkey, July 10, 2020. Turkish Presidential Press Office/Handout via REUTERS

Turkey on Thursday appointed three imams for Hagia Sophia, one of them a professor of religious studies, as the nation prepares for the first Muslim prayers in the Istanbul landmark in 86 years following its conversion back into a mosque.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is scheduled to join hundreds of worshipers Friday for prayers inside the former Byzantine cathedral that became a mosque with the 1453 Muslim conquest of Istanbul and then a museum in 1934 after Turkey became a secular republic.

Erdogan issued a decree restoring the iconic sixth-century building as a mosque this month after a Turkish high court ruled that the Hagia Sophia had been illegally made into a museum more than eight decades ago. The move was met with dismay in Greece and the United States and from Christian church leaders.

The Associated Press said on Thursday that the Turkish leader, joined by a large entourage, paid a surprise visit to inspect final preparations at the structure, including the unveiling of a sign at the entrance that reads: “The Hagia Sophia Grand Mosque.”

The head of Turkey’s religious authority, Ali Erbas, on Thursday announced the appointment of the three imams who will lead prayers at the reconverted mosque: Mehmet Boynukalin, a professor of Islamic law at Istanbul’s Marmara University, and Ferruh Mustuer and Bunjamin Topcuoglu, the imams of two other Istanbul mosques.

Erbas also named five muezzins — the officials who make the Muslim call for prayer — for Hagia Sophia, including two from Istanbul’s famed Blue Mosque.

Authorities have designated segregated areas outside of the Hagia Sophia for men and women wanting to join Friday's inaugural prayers.

Several roads leading to the building are being blocked. Authorities have said as many as 17,000 security personnel would be on duty.



Sunken WWII Japanese Warship Found Off Solomon Islands

A team from the US non-profit Ocean Exploration Trust discovered the Imperial Japanese Navy destroyer Teruzuki. Photo: Ocean Exploration Trust
A team from the US non-profit Ocean Exploration Trust discovered the Imperial Japanese Navy destroyer Teruzuki. Photo: Ocean Exploration Trust
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Sunken WWII Japanese Warship Found Off Solomon Islands

A team from the US non-profit Ocean Exploration Trust discovered the Imperial Japanese Navy destroyer Teruzuki. Photo: Ocean Exploration Trust
A team from the US non-profit Ocean Exploration Trust discovered the Imperial Japanese Navy destroyer Teruzuki. Photo: Ocean Exploration Trust

An international research team has located a Japanese World War II destroyer on the deep seabed off Solomon Islands as the 80th anniversary of the war's end approaches.

A team from the US non-profit Ocean Exploration Trust discovered the Imperial Japanese Navy destroyer Teruzuki at a depth of more than 800 meters (2,625 feet) off the small island nation northeast of Australia, AFP reported.

A video image of the wreck shows parts of the 134-meter (440-foot) Teruzuki, which was torpedoed by the US military in 1942, illuminated by lights from the research team's underwater drones.

The footage shows red paint on the hull, corroded gun barrels and the warship's massive stern.

Commissioned in 1942, the Teruzuki was designed for screening aircraft carriers from aerial attacks, the exploration group said.

However, the Teruzuki, which means "Shining Moon" in Japanese, was hit by US torpedoes just months into its service.

Nine sailors were killed but most of the crew members survived, the Ocean Exploration Trust said.

Teruzuki's stern was found more than 200 meters (660 feet) from the hull and was located by high-resolution sonar scans, it said.

The discovery was made while the team used drones to survey the area in the hope of finding unidentified shipwrecks or other items.