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What caused Erdogan’s change of heart on Hagia Sophia?

Turkey’s president has pledged to change the status of Istanbul’s landmark Hagia Sophia to a mosque, going back on his previous objections to such a move and raising questions whether the pledge is merely a populist gesture ahead of elections or something more.
People walk past an election poster bearing the picture of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and reading "Istanbul is a love story for us", in front of the Hagia Sophia museum in Istanbul, on March 26, 2019, ahead of March 31 local elections. - Turkish President on March 24 mooted the possibility of renaming Istanbul's Hagia Sofia museum as a mosque, in comments during a television interview. The museum, a UNESCO World Heritage site, receives millions of visitors every year. (Photo by Yasin AKGUL / AF

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s recent remarks that Hagia Sophia, a famed Istanbul landmark, could be reverted to a mosque have fueled both controversy and curiosity. Islamist, conservative and nationalist quarters in Turkey have long called for the ancient edifice — currently a museum — to be opened for Muslim worship.

As Turkish journalist Rusen Cakir, who closely follows Islamist movements, recalls, conservative and Islamist groups in Turkey used to raise three main demands in their demonstrations prior to the Justice and Development Party’s (AKP) ascent to power in 2002. They included the lifting of bans on the Islamic headscarf, an end to restrictions on the imam-hatip religious schools and Hagia Sophia’s conversion to a mosque.

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