President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is set to hold his final campaign rally for this Sunday’s polls with Maghrib (sunset) prayers at the Hagia Sophia Grand Mosque in Istanbul on Saturday.
Erdoğan, looking to clinch another victory in both presidential and parliamentary elections in the 21st year of his rule, will also hold one final meet and greet with supporters in the Bahçelievler district before the campaigning period ends.
On Saturday, he will continue meeting citizens in Ümraniye, Sancaktepe and Beyoğlu districts.
On Sunday, he will be casting his vote with 61 million others nationwide to elect Türkiye’s 13th president and 600 members of Parliament.
Hagia Sophia holds quite a cultural and historic significance for Türkiye.
The iconic monument served as a church for 916 years until the conquest of Istanbul. It then served as a mosque from 1453 to 1934 – nearly 500 years – and most recently as a museum for 86 years.
One of the most visited historic buildings in Türkiye by domestic and international tourists, Hagia Sophia was added to the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1985.
On July 10, 2020, a Turkish court annulled a 1934 Cabinet decree that had turned Hagia Sophia into a museum, paving the way for its use again as a mosque after the 86-year hiatus.
The move made an international splash and was one Erdoğan hailed as a “significant challenge to global tutelage.”
