Greek-Americans cancel plans to hold religious service Hagia Sophia

September 17, 2010 - 14:38 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net - A group of 200 Greek-Americans canceled plans to hold a religious service in Istanbul’s Hagia Sophia, according to Turkish media reports.

Chris Spyrou, head of the International Congregation of Agia Sophia and the leader of the group, told Anatolia Agency that they received a statement from Turkish authorities regarding their demand and actions as provocative.

Meanwhile, Keep Talking Greece reported that the liturgy was “canceled after diplomacy intervention.”

Spyrou said, he was forced to take this decision as “neither the Ecumenical Patriarch, not the Greek, not the Turkish government with the presence of Greek visitors to the church of Hagia Sofia”.

He stressed that after this development the NGO will take the issue to the European Court of Human Rights.

Hagia Sophia, once a byzantine Orthodox patriarchal basilica, was turned into a mosque after the Fall of Constantinople and its conquest by the Ottoman Turks in 1453. It was turned into a mosque, but it was secularized by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk. It is a museum since 1935.

Turkish Minister of Culture and Tourism, Ertugrul Gunay, said earlier in an interview that Turkey by no means will allow a liturgy to take place in Hagia Sophia. He described the group as “fanatics” and warned that “if there are deliberate actions aimed at disrupting the peace, the state will take measures”.