Turkey Declares Ancient Armenian Cathedral of Ani is Mosque

The Cathedral of Ani or Surp Asdvadzadzin Cathedral, a UNESCO World Heritage Site and masterpiece of Armenian medieval architecture in Kars in northeastern Turkey, is currently being restored in a partnership between Turkey’s Ministry of Culture and the World Monuments Fund.

Arshak Fetvadjian (1866–1947), Ani Cathedral, watercolor, 1905, National Gallery of Armenia, public domain.

Turkey’s Anadolu Agency announced on July 3 that, upon completion of restoration, the site would serve as the “Fethiye (Conquest) Mosque,” without acknowledging its Christian identity or its significance as an ancient Armenian monument. The World Monuments Fund has not yet issued any public comment on Turkey’s announcement.

The announcement has reignited longstanding concerns over Turkey’s systematic erasure of its Christian heritage. President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s administration has made conversion of religious monuments of Orthodox Christian and Armenian origin into mosques a key part of its political platform, in direct contradiction of international heritage preservation principles and international conventions on human, religious and cultural rights.

The Turkish government’s plan to convert the Cathedral of Ani into a mosque is part of a deliberate policy to erase the Christian and Armenian presence from its historical narrative. This systematic Islamization of Christian World Heritage sites—Hagia Sophia, Chora Church, and now potentially Ani—is not only a violation of international heritage commitments but a profound act of cultural appropriation and historical denial. The international community, religious organizations, and heritage bodies must confront these actions and demand that Turkey uphold its obligations to protect and preserve the evidence of a shared, pluralistic past.

Ani Cathedral, south side, photo by Dosseman, 21 September 2012, CCA-SA 4.0 International license.

The cathedral, Surp Asdvadzadzin (Holy Mother of God), was constructed between 987 and 1010 by the Armenian architect Trdat, who also restored the dome of Hagia Sophia in Constantinople. The cathedral served as the seat of the Armenian Apostolic Church’s Catholicos for decades and was the spiritual and political heart of medieval Armenian civilization. After the Seljuk conquest in 1064, it was briefly converted into a mosque but reverted to Christian use in 1199 under the Georgian-Armenian Zakarid rule. Despite centuries of decline, earthquakes, and neglect, the cathedral remains the most impressive surviving structure in the medieval city of Ani.

In announcing the reopening of the cathedral as a mosque following its restoration, Turkish officials emphasized its temporary use as a mosque during the Seljuk conquest and omitted any reference to its Armenian origins. This calculated rebranding is part of a broader government effort to reshape the historical narrative of Christian monuments in Turkey.

The Cathedral of Ani on a street art mural on Tumanyan Street, Yerevan, Armenia, photo by Yerevantsi, 25 March 2023, CCA-SA 4.0 International license.

This move follows the controversial 2020 conversion of Hagia Sophia, originally built in 537 as a Greek Orthodox cathedral and converted to a mosque after the Ottoman conquest in 1453. It had functioned as a museum since 1935, under the secular Turkish Republic, until Erdoğan reversed that decision. Similarly, the Chora Church, another Byzantine masterpiece and UNESCO-protected site, was converted into a mosque in 2020.

These conversions have drawn harsh criticism from Christian leaders, scholars, and international heritage advocates. They argue that Turkey is transforming globally significant religious heritage sites into exclusive Islamic monuments and removing their multi-religious, multicultural legacy. George Aslan, an Assyrian Christian Member of Parliament, formally challenged the Ministry of Culture on the Ani conversion on July 6, questioning how such a decision aligns with Turkey’s professed multicultural values.

The Armenian community has voiced profound concern, describing the act as a continuation of efforts to obliterate the legacy of Western Armenia. The deliberate omission of the cathedral’s Armenian roots by Turkish authorities is viewed as a conscious effort to marginalize the contributions of Armenia’s ancient Christian civilization.

Cathedral of Ani, Architectural fragment, photo by Francesco Bini, 26 September 2022, CCA-SA 4.0 international license.

Internationally, church organizations such as the National Council of Churches of Christ in the USA condemned the conversion of Hagia Sophia. Christian organizations have sought to restore Christian historic sites as museums accessible to all faiths. Scholars and preservationists note that Ani’s architectural significance is not just Armenian but global, with some historians arguing that its features prefigured and influenced European Gothic architecture.

Turkey has a well-documented history of repressing and appropriating the religious heritage of its Christian minorities. Assyrian Christians (Syriacs), were victims of the Seyfo Genocide during World War I and face continuing discrimination and appropriations. Armenians, once a prominent presence in Eastern Turkey, faced annihilation during the Armenian Genocide beginning in 1915. Entire communities were exterminated, and churches were desecrated or repurposed. Greek Orthodox Christians, once thriving in Anatolia, were expelled or fled after the Treaty of Lausanne (1923), following the Greco-Turkish War. Government instigated anti-Greek Christian pogroms, most notably the Istanbul Pogrom of 1955, resulted in the flight of the majority of Istanbul’s remaining Greek population, leaving fewer than 3000 from over 100,000 residents. Today, under Erdoğan’s leadership, cultural and religious monuments are being recast to support a vision of Ottoman-Islamic continuity, while non-Muslim heritage is either marginalized, redefined, or erased.

Turkey’s actions directly contradict the obligations it accepted under the UNESCO World Heritage Convention, which emphasizes the protection and preservation of cultural properties of “outstanding universal value” regardless of religion or national origin. The conversion of such sites into exclusive places of worship runs counter to their designation as shared heritage for all humanity.

Panorama of Interior of Cathedral – Ani , photo by Adam Jones from Kelowna, BC, Canada, e 8 June 2011, CCA-SA 2.0 Generic license.

Turkey Declares Ancient Armenian Cathedral of Ani is Mosque

Mid-restoration in partnership with World Monuments Fund, Turkish government scrubs 1000 year history.