Erdogan has just announced that he is going to convert the 1500 year-old church in Istanbul, Hagia Sophia, into a mosque. It has been a museum for a long time.
Erdogan is furious at Trump for officially recognizing the Golan Heights as belonging to Israel and is now retaliating with this announcement.
Here’s more from CBN News:
After it was reported that Turkish President Recep Erdogan was considering converting Istanbul’s iconic Hagia Sophia into a functioning mosque, many Orthodox Christians hoped he was just speculating. However, in an interview given yesterday, Erdogan confirmed that the historic site, which was previously a Christian cathedral and a special place of worship for Greek Orthodox Christians, will be turned into an enormous Islamic center.
“Ayasofya (Hagia Sophia) will no longer be called a museum. Its status will change,” Erdogan said in a live broadcast, according to Hurriyet Daily News. “We will call it a mosque.”
“Trump is behaving like a bully boy…”
Erdogan then called attention to the Israeli forces’ action on the Al-Aqsa Mosque in East Jerusalem earlier this month, ranting that those who stay silent on what is going on in Israel should not be afforded the right to criticize his plans for the Hagia Sophia.
“Those who remain silent when Masjid Al-Aqsa is attacked, trampled, its windows smashed, cannot tell us what to do about the status of Ayasofya,” Erdogan continued, noting that his decision was in response to President Donald Trump’s recent decision to recognize the Golan Heights as Israeli territory — something which Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called a “two-fold act of historic justice.”
“Unfortunately, Trump is behaving like a bully boy,” Erdogan said of president’s most recent diplomatic move. “How can you do this despite the United Nations? What are you doing? Being at the helm of a state like the U.S. does not give you such a right..”
Hagia Sophia was rebuilt for the third time in 537 AD (after being burned down twice) and stood as one of the greatest Christian churches in the world for almost a millennium.
Then in 1453 the Seljukian Turks, otherwise known as the Ottomans, converted it into a mosque after Constantinople fell.
In 1935, just over a decade after the fall of the Ottoman Empire, Hagia Sophia was converted back into a Museum.
Erdogan says now that was a very big mistake.
He went on to say, according to CBN News, “Constantinople will never exist again,” Erdogan declared in his remarks Wednesday. “The name of this area is Islambol (full of Islam) and you know that.”
Of course the Greeks are very upset about this, as they should be:
Despite Erdogan’s fury at Trump usurping the UN’s political authority, Greek officials have insisted that the Turkish leader will need to attain clearance from the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) if he is to make any changes to the building, as the Hagia Sophia is a protected historical site.
“It is not only a great temple of Christendom — the largest for many centuries — it also belongs to humanity,” Greek Foreign Minister George Katrougalos implored, according to the Greek Reporter. “It has been recognized by UNESCO (the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization), as part of our global cultural heritage.”
“So any questioning of this status is not just an insult to the sentiments of Christians, it is an insult to the international community and international law,” he added.
UNESCO sources have confirmed that the Turkish government would need to seek its approval before converting the building into a mosque.
I have no doubt that the Israel-hating UNESCO will gladly bend to Erdogan’s will on this. Remember, Trump pulled us out of UNESCO and Netanyahu soon thereafter followed suit.
Many of you who have been a long-time reader of The Right Scoop know exactly what I think about Erdogan, that he’s very possibly the man who becomes the Antichrist, of whom the Bible speaks. I won’t re-litigate that now, and if you want to know more you can search my site for my writings on this and my defense of it.
But this latest move by Erdogan, mimicking his Ottoman predecessors, certainly fits with what we’ve told you about regarding the resurrection of the seventh empire. And it feels like those ‘last days’ are nearly upon us.