Scandalous are the revelations about the disasters at Hagia Sophia, without any protection from those responsible for the protection of the monument.
What has been made public is also causing a reaction in Turkey. The left-leaning opposition newspaper Birgiun published an article entitled "Talking about heritage, and committing murder."
"Scandals continue unabated at Hagia Sophia, which has been converted from a museum to a mosque. The allegation that pieces were removed from the historic doorway and "eaten" in the 1,500-year-old Hagia Sophia remains on the agenda. It is now claimed that visitors are scraping the walls and putting the rubble in bags," the publication said."
Video shows damage to support column
The columnist talks to the president of the Society for the History of Art (STD), Sherif Yasar, who shared a video on his account of a new scandal at the Hagia Sophia.
The video shows that the support column shows graffiti with names, shapes carved with a sharp object, on an interior space.
Yassar shows the space and surface where the destruction can be seen and points out that there has been no worse "embarrassment" than this spectacle. He even criticizes those responsible for the lack of precautionary measures and calls it a heritage murder.
"About a month and a half ago, the destruction of the gate was on the agenda. We expected action to be taken, but no action was taken. We started touring the site and began to see new destruction. A visitor with a bag picks up pieces of the wall. The column supporting Hagia Sophia is covered with hundreds of inscriptions. Visitors wrote their names on the walls, painted hearts," he says."
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Hagia Sophia in danger
When Hagia Sophia was a museum, there was a Scientific Council that decided that the building was a very old structure and that it should be visited by groups of up to 20 people at most. This is because even the dampness created by human breath shortens the life of the building. Yet thousands of people are inside at the same time.
Yassar points out that the General Directorate of Institutions claimed that Hagia Sophia was protected by 154 security cameras, with 68 guards and tourist police. Therefore, questions are raised about how the disaster occurred and how this security works. Previously, when it was a museum, it was protected by fully trained, knowledgeable and aware staff.
According to Yassar, it is not only Hagia Sophia that is at risk. There are heritage sites all over the country. The government is leaving the places they call "ancestral relics" to their fate, causing a new murder every day.
Yassar says he receives daily complaints about cultural heritage in many cities: "For example, there is the old Iskender Pasha Mosque, even in Suleymaniye, in the heart of Fatih in Istanbul. Now, the school of a religious institution rises above the historic courtyard and the historic area of this mosque. There is no heritage protection policy. This is the biggest problem. We make so many complaints, we submit requests, scandals are revealed every day, but nothing is done. That's why the scandals continue."
Source: Proto Thema
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