Last December it was reported that Hagia Sophia suffered even more damage. The Imperial Gate under the mosaics of Saints Constantine and Justinian was damaged last year, but in December it was discovered the gate suffered more damage. Hagia Sophia appears to suffer from the ignorance of those responsible for the Great Church’s upkeep.
President Erdogan took Hagia Sophia from the ministry of culture which did a good job preserving the Church, and gave it to the clerics who are completely indifferent to both the Christian origins of Hagia Sophia and the historical significance of the Church. The upcoming Turkish elections will be significant.
Will Hagia Sophia be restored as a museum in a post Erdogan government? This remains to be seen.
3 replies on “Hagia Sophia Diaries 30”
Erdogan has turned Turkey into a quasi-dictatorship. He controls the Courts, the Press, the Police, the Military, the TV/Radio news media, the Central Bank and most of the government bureaucracy. Expecting anything approaching a fair election under these circumstances is absurd, even with Erdogan’s catastrophic handling of the economy and currency. He will use every tool he has to assure his reelection, because he knows if he loses his power base will start to come apart and he’ll face justice for his corruption. In the very unlikely event that he loses, I doubt his replacement would be much of a change for the better. Kilicdaroglu is a tool of the nationalists, he won’t deviate much if at all from current policy. Turkey’s Deep State is ready to step in in the unlikely event that Erdogan loses an election, but that is VERY unlikely.
Kilikdaroglu has said he considers the Greek islands to be occupied territory. He might be even worse than Erdogan.
The Turkish Lira is in deep, deep trouble. 5 years ago one US Dollar traded for about 4 Turkish Lira. Today, one US Dollar trades for 19.34 Turkish Lira-massive depreciation of the Turkish Lira against major currencies. The Turkish Treasury and Central bank are rushing truckloads of Dollars/EUROS over to the foreign currency exchanges trying to by LIra to arrest it’s descent, but they have very little hard currency left. Throw in the recent earthquake and Turkey’s currency and economy has one foot on a banana peel and another foot over the abyss. And even with all this, Erdogan’s control over nearly all institutions of power in Turkey make it very unlikely he will lose the election. Very dangerous time in Turkey and for Turkey’s neighbors.