We will inform UNESCO about our next steps, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu said on TRT, in the aftermath of the international reactions to the conversion of Hagia Sophia and the first prayer to be held on July 24.
“We are surprised by some UNESCO statements. We will inform it about the next steps that we will take,” he said specifically.
Insisting on the provocative rhetoric, the Turkish foreign minister referred to Greece, saying that “Greece has no right to speak” as “it is the only country without a mosque in its capital. We see the persecution of the Turks in western Thrace (it is noted that the minority in Thrace is defined by the Treaty of Lausanne as Muslim and not Turkish as Çavuşoğlu mentions here). Greece has silenced the call for prayer from the loudspeakers under the pretext of the coronavirus.”
It is noted that Erdogan’s decision on the Hagia Sophia is in complete contradiction with the terms of the UNESCO Convention concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage (1981), in which it is explicitly stated that for any physical intervention and operational changes in the registered buildings and sites should be granted authorization by the World Heritage Committee.
In accordance with the Convention, which has also been signed by Turkey, before any intervention in such areas, a written request must be sent to UNESCO.