Turkey’s Decision to Turn Hagia Sophia Into a Mosque Dismays Christians, Neighbors, Historians

ISTANBUL—With its vast dome and towering minarets, Hagia Sophia is to humanity what the Grand Canyon is to geology: an open up-air guide that concentrates almost a person and a half millennia of history as the successive coronary heart of Orthodox Christian and Muslim empires, punctuated by ransacking, fires and earthquakes.

But by determining on Friday to completely transform again into a comprehensive-fledged mosque a constructing that has been a museum considering the fact that the thirties and has develop into a highly effective image of ecumenical relations, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan despatched…