Arab News Japan

Tokyo: Internationally renowned writer and Nobel laureate Orhan Pamuk recently criticized the Turkish government’s decision to convert Hagia Sophia into a mosque in an interview with a Japanese newspaper, saying that both, the media and Turkish citizens are unable to challenge the government.

“There is no free speech in Turkey,” Pamuk told Japan News correspondent Yomiuri Shimbun.

“Neither nationals nor the media are able to challenge the authoritarian government,” Pamuk added.

The administration of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has been forcing the closure of media outlets that are critical of the government. According to Pamuk, power is now concentrated at one extreme and both the parliament and courts have lost their independence.

After a presidential order from Erdogan in July, the Hagia Sophia was converted from a museum back into a mosque. Due to its mixed origin, the site had long served as a symbol of secularism. 

Originally a Greek Orthodox cathedral, the Hagia Sophia, was turned into a mosque in the 1400s and was then converted into a museum in the 1930s by Kemal Ataturk, the founder of the Republic of Turkey.

“Ataturk signaled to the world and the West that ‘We are tolerant. We are secular. Religion is not our only ideology,’” said Pamuk in an interview with the Japanese paper. “He did it by making Ayasofya into a museum.”

Pamuk said he was against the building’s conversion into a mosque, emphasizing that Turkey is a “secular nation of Muslims.”

He also voiced a warning about the current state of the country, saying that “The streets are colored by newspapers and posters supporting the administration. Monitoring of social media will be intensified, too. Turkey will be seen to be like an extremely authoritarian and controlling country.”

Pamuk, whose work has been translated into about 60 languages and who remains among Turkey’s top-selling writers, has long championed free speech and freedom of the press.