Orthodox Patriarch says turning Istanbul's Hagia Sophia into mosque would be divisive

People visit Hagia Sophia or Ayasofya, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, which was a Byzantine cathedral before being converted into a mosque which is currently a museum, in Istanbul, Turkey, June 30, 2020. REUTERS/Murad Sezer

ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Converting Istanbul's sixth century Hagia Sophia back into a mosque would sow division, the spiritual head of the world's Orthodox Christians warned on Tuesday, ahead of a Turkish court ruling on a building that has been a museum since 1934.

President Tayyip Erdogan has proposed restoring the mosque status of the UNESCO World Heritage Site, a building at the heart of both Christian Byzantine and Muslim Ottoman empires and today one of Turkey's most visited monuments.