FILE PHOTO: People visit the Hagia Sophia or Ayasofya, a UNESCO World Heritage Site which was a Byzantine cathedral before it was converted into a mosque and currently a museum, in Istanbul, Turkey, July 2, 2020. REUTERS/Murad Sezer
ANKARA (Reuters) - A Turkish court is likely to announce on Friday that the 1934 conversion of Istanbul's Hagia Sophia into a museum was unlawful, two Turkish officials said, paving the way for its restoration as a mosque despite international concerns.
President Tayyip Erdogan has proposed restoring the mosque status of the sixth-century UNESCO World Heritage Site, which was central to both the Christian Byzantine and Muslim Ottoman empires and is now one of the most visited monuments in Turkey.
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