A series of new images revealing the ongoing vandalism at the Hagia Sophia, a World Heritage Site in Turkey, has seen the light causing outrage.

Turkish media partial to the opposition Republican Party has picked up on the news story showing the extent of the damage caused to the site, once a Museum and Christian Orthodox Church by showing photos on social media.

On the website of the television network HalkTv, there are photos-documents on social media that reveal the damaged walls.

A user posted photos of two women who “are chipping pieces from the wall of the building and putting them in bags”, noting that “at one time one could not take a photo with a flash, because it would damage the walls”.

“Now they are detaching pieces from the walls and placing them in bags as souvenirs. Where is the respect, the protection of the cultural heritage in Hagia Sophia that has been standing for 1485 years? Before things get worse, please stop them. This is not worship,” added the internet user.

Earlier in the month, the vandalism of the Hagia Sophia imperial gate had provoked the reaction of Greece, with the Foreign Ministry speaking of an act that “causes disgust and regret” and calling on the Turkish authorities: “to do the right thing so that those responsible are brought to justice, as well as to immediately repair the damage to the Monument”.

Despite the outcry over the vandalism in Hagia Sophia, a close associate of Recep Tayyip Erdogan had threatened that the conversion of Hagia Sophia into a mosque is only the beginning, effectively provoking the West that Turley feared nothing.

“Because they said you can not do it, we reopened the closed Varosha in Cyprus, with the will of our president. Do you know what we did when we were busy with the pandemic? We turned the Hagia Sophia into a mosque, something they held over our heads for years like Damocles’s Sword, threatening us with a disturbance of peace and vowing not to let us convert it. I say this so that they understand and be ready for what we have to do”, he had stated.

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