National Commander of the Archons: Hagia Sophia as World Heritage Site, not as monument of the Conquest

By Dr. Anthony J. Limberakis

On July 24, 2026, the Directorate of Communications of the Presidency of the Republic of Türkiye marked the sixth anniversary of the conversion of Hagia Sophia from a museum to an active mosque with a public program titled “Hagia Sophia: A Monument of the Conquest, the Heart of a Civilisation That Transcends the Ages.” In remarks delivered at that program, the Presidency’s Head of Communications described the 2020 reconversion as “a powerful expression of fidelity” to the endowment deed of Sultan Mehmed II, and characterized the building’s history in exclusively martial and civilizational terms — as a “token of the conquest of İstanbul” and evidence that Türkiye forms part of a triumphant “Islamic civilisation.”

As National Commander of the Archons of the Ecumenical Patriarchate — the lay order chartered by His All-Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew to defend the religious freedom, human rights, and institutional integrity of the Mother Church of Orthodox Christianity — I issue this statement on behalf of the Archons to place the historical and legal record before the American and international public, and to renew our request that the…