#HagiaSophiaCathedral #HagiaSophiaMuseum - Secular laws and civil protections have eroded tremendously under Erdogan’s Turkey

Atheist Alliance International

Hagia Sophia became a mosque again. Secular laws and civil protections have eroded tremendously under Erdogan’s Turkey. Now, secular culture is being undermined with the museum status of this landmark revoked. Hagia Sophia was not always a mosque of course. It started out as a church. Perhaps the current Turkish government is enviously looking east at Iran, or south to Saudi Arabia.

A personal hypothesis of mine is that the erosion of liberties and the rise of Islam in Turkish politics is a reaction to that decade long effort by Turkey to join the EU, which was met with delays and condition-precedent reforms that signaled refusal. EU feared a wave of immigrants (which they eventually go from Syria anyway). Then, with the collapse of Greece and Cyprus during the 2008-9 financial crisis, Turkey had good reason to give up on its EU dreams. It withdrew its application.

Yes, Turkey lacked regulations protecting civil liberties then. But where is it now? The EU could have granted membership and help gradually transform Turkey. It was bad form by EU; it was always viewed within Turkey that the delays were racists/culturalist. Not sure if an EU Turkey would have behaved as they have in Kurdish Syria if it would have sacked professors and judges, changed laws to hand power to a pseudo-king, etc. For now, Turkish politics remains dominated by Islamic parties who dominate and veer conservative by the day.

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