Erdogan Celebrates the Triumph of Savagery
“Today,” said Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Friday, “is Friday, May 29, and we had the opportunity to pray at Hagia. Attendance at Hagia Sophia was also very beautiful, magnificent. Today there was a march from Fatih to Hagia Sophia.” Fatih, or “The Conqueror,” was Sultan Mehmed II, and on May 29, 1453, he did indeed march to Hagia Sophia in Constantinople, which had stood at that time for nearly a thousand years as the grandest church in the Christian world.
His march, however, was not a serene victory march. It was a pitiless display of bloodlust and inhumanity, as the conquering Muslims laid waste to the great city and joyfully continued their orgy of rape and murder even inside the great cathedral itself. Once Mehmed entered, he had a muezzin pronounce the Islamic profession of faith and declared that the great cathedral was now a mosque. After over a thousand years, the Roman Empire was no more.
There is more. Read the rest here. It is behind a paywall.
You can also search this blog for "Hagia Sophia" for a few fascinating stories on the ancient church. You may also come across my piece, which suggests that Erdogan's preaching from the pulpit of the Hagia Sophia may well have been the incident referenced in Matt 24:14-16 - The Abomination of Desolation standing in the holy place.
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