A hearing on a complaint filed with the Tenth Branch of the Administrative Court in Istanbul will be held on July 2, requesting the cancellation of the Governing Council’s 1934 decision, which provided for the transfer of Hagia Sophia from a mosque to a museum.
Where the Association of Endowments, which continues to serve archeology and the environment, filed a lawsuit against the Council of Ministers in 2016, calling for the cancellation of a 1934 decision by the Governing Council to convert the Hagia Sophia into a museum, claiming that the signature of Ghazi Mustafa Kemal Ataturk was fake.
As part of the case, the tenth session of the Administrative Court will be held on July 2, the case will be heard and the prosecutor will hear the association’s allegations.
According to the law, the branch must announce its decision on the same day or within a maximum period of 15 days.
The Endowments Association for Preserving Historic Monuments and the Environment first filed a lawsuit in connection with Hagia Sophia in 2005. Through which it called on the association to stop the Governing Council’s decision on November 24, 1934.
On June 24, 2005, the tenth branch of the Administrative Court in Istanbul rejected a request to suspend the implementation of this decision. And in 2008, the branch rejected the request, stating that there were no legal violations in the use of the Hagia Sophia Mosque as a museum.
The Administrative Court branch office upheld the decision of the branch. The association again filed a complaint with the Administrative Court in 2016.
In 2018, a judgment was passed regarding the association’s individual application to the Constitutional Court. The Supreme Court ruled that the request to refuse to open the Hagia Sophia for worshipping was a violation of freedom of religion and conscience because “the request was not the responsibility of the association without investigation.”
