Erdogan joins thousands to pray for first time at Istanbul's Hagia Sophia

Turkey’s President Tayyip Erdogan joined thousands of worshippers at Hagia Sophia today for the first prayers there since he declared the monument, revered by Christians and Muslims for almost 1,500 years, a mosque once again.

Erdogan and his top ministers, wearing white facemasks as a precaution against Covid-19, knelt on blue carpets at the start of a ceremony which marks the return of Muslim worship to the ancient structure...