Muezzin Osman Aslan who was serving at the Hagia Sophia since it started to operate as a Mosque died suddenly in the building from an apparent heart attack on Sunday.

His death came a few days after the conversion of Hagia Sophia into a mosque and the Muslim prayer that took place there, decades later.

Aslan served in Hagia Sophia from the first day of its conversion into a mosque as a volunteer, informing Muslims about the measures of the coronavirus inside the building.

The news caused a shock in the Turkish media.

After 86 years, a full-fledged Muslim prayer was held in Hagia Sophia, in a highly propagandist ceremony, to portray Tayyip Erdogan as the leader of the Muslims across the world, returning to the faithful a historic monument as a symbol of conquest.

Supported by an Ottoman sword, Ali Erbas, the supreme imam and president of the controversial Religious Affairs Authority of Turkey, climbed the pulpit of Hagia Sophia.

The ottoman sword is considered a symbol of conquest. In the tradition of the Ottoman Empire, two green banners are hung on the pulpit of the mosque as a symbol of conquest, while a sword is placed at the entrance of the pulpit.