Reaction of the world community to the reclassification of Hagia Sophia as a mosque

Abstract

The research is a comprehensive reflection of the world community’s reaction to the reclassification of Hagia Sophia as a mosque. As a methodological base, the authors use the division of the world proposed by Samuel Phillips Huntington. Along with the analysis of international connections, the article includes discussions about the division of the world, desecularization, and the growth of authoritarianism based on the example of the modern Republic of Turkey under the government of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. The authors give special attention to the urgent problem of a dialogue between religions - the reaction of the heads of religious institutions. It’s also noteworthy that in order to provide a comprehensive review of Mass Media, the authors use sources in 18 languages including Russian, and those translated by the author. The uniqueness of this research is determined by the absence of a relevant comprehensive reflection (as a manifestation of the reaction of the world community) of this event in the Russian scientific discourse. The main conclusion of this research is the assertion of the reappearance of Neo-Ottomanism, which, in its turn, proves the reality of the transformation of the world order from the unipolar to the multipolar one. The authors find out that Saudi Arabia and Egypt consider themselves as the key geopolitical rivals of Turkey, as these Muslim countries were among the few ones which reacted negatively to this domestic political decision. The research also shows that in general, international Mass Media have professionally covered Erdogan’s decision and outlined the rational reasons along with the religious factor: the aspiration of the ruling elite to distract the attention of the public from negative economic effects of the pandemic, and make the political in-fighting work in their favor.