The case, aimed at converting Istanbul's sixth century Hagia Sophia back into a mosque, has drawn international expressions of concern.
President Tayyip Erdogan has proposed restoring the mosque status of the UNESCO World Heritage Site, a building at the heart of both Christian Byzantine and Muslim Ottoman empires and today one of Turkey's most visited monuments.
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Wednesday urged Turkey to let Hagia Sophia remain a museum, while the spiritual head of the world's Orthodox Christians warned its conversion to a mosque would sow division. Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, the spiritual head of some 300 million Orthodox Christians worldwide and based in Istanbul, said converting it to a mosque would disappoint Christians and would"fracture" East and West.
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