CONVERTING AYASOYFA INTO A MUSEUM IN THE CONTEXT OF TURKEY'S 1930S BLOCK AND PACT POLICY

Abstract

Hagia Sophia is one of the monumental structures of the Islamic and Christian beliefs, which has
had the status of a church, a mosque, a museum and later a mosque until today. After the conquest
of Istanbul in 1453, it was converted from a church into a mosque and in time it became the symbol
of "chosen victory" for the Turkish-Islamic world and "chosen trauma" for the Christian-West
world. In 1934, conversion from mosque to museum by the Decree of the Executive Deputies
Delegation was seen as “chosen victory” for the withdrawal in terms of conservative-islamistnationalist fractions in Turkey. With this study, the foreign policy dimension of converting Hagia
Sophia, which has intense symbolic meanings, into a museum is discussed. The following theses are
defended in the study: First, Turkish foreign policy makers has used Hagia Sophia as one of the
psycho-political insrument of participating in the UK-led Western alliance system at a point where
the international status quo began to crumble. Second, the compelling factor of transforming Hagia Sophia into a museum is Turkey's border security and political sovereignty that threatens the 1930s
conjuncture.