Turkey’s top administrative court is likely to announce on July 10 that the 1934 conversion of the Hagia Sophia into a museum was unlawful, two Turkish officials said, paving the way for its restoration as a mosque.
UNESCO told Reuters that the Hagia Sophia was on its list of World Heritage Sites as a museum, and as such had certain commitments and legal obligations.
“Thus, a state must make sure that no modification undermines the outstanding universal value of a site listed on its territory,” UNESCO said.
“Any modification must be notified beforehand by the state to UNESCO and be reviewed if need be by the World Heritage Committee,” it added.
UNESCO said it had expressed its concerns to Turkish authorities in several letters and conveyed the message to Turkey’s ambassador to the institution on Thursday.
“We urge Turkish authorities to start a dialog before any decision is taken that could undermine the universal value of the site,” UNESCO said.
“We expect the decision to be an annulment (and) the verdict to come out on Friday,” a senior Turkish official told Reuters.
An official from President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s ruling AKP also said the decision “in favor of an annulment” was expected on July 10.
Pro-government columnist Abdulkadir Selvi wrote in the Hürriyet newspaper that the court had already made the annulment ruling and would publish it on July 10.
“This nation has been waiting for 86 years. The court lifted the chain of bans on Hagia Sophia,” he wrote.