German Press: ‘Nightmare’ at Hagia Sophia – Shoe racks and trolleys at the Imperial Gate

“The Byzantine building is almost 1,500 years old. It first functioned as a church, then as an Islamic mosque and then as a museum. However as of July 2020 the Hagia Sophia it has been turned into a mosque again. Anyone who visits must take off their shoes. (…) Muslims pray on its green carpet, non-Muslims, wearing their socks, admire the dome, mosaics and frescoes. (…) In the narthex, the vestibule with the famous Byzantine mosaics and the imposing imperial gate, shoe racks have been placed, and wheelchairs and baby carriages are parked next to them. After the gate, worshipers pray under the arch, while tourists, heads bowed, admire the giant dome and the faded frescoes of the four archangels. Among all of them are families sitting on the ground, crying babies and others taking selfies,” the German journalist vividly describes, describing the interior of Hagia Sophia as a “religious festival” and a “nightmare” for archaeologists and historians.

Pre-election fight between neighbors

tagesschau.de, the news magazine of the first channel of German public television, hosts an interview with Dimitris Triantafyllou, an internationalist and expert on Greek-Turkish issues, on its website.

The Greek university professor perceives the threats made by Erdogan among other things as a pre-election move, while at the same time he assumes, at least for the time being, that the Turkish president will win the elections. Appreciating Erdogan’s relationship with the Greek Prime Minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, he points out: “I am of the opinion that the fact that he attacked him directly and at the same time that he refuses to communicate with him may also be an indication that he respects him. I also believe that the two of them could find some solutions.”

After all, as the tagesschau.de report characteristically notes, “just six months ago, Erdogan welcomed Mitsotakis in Istanbul. And then, his press office stated that Ankara and Athens bear a particularly great responsibility in terms of the European security architecture.”

Iannis Xenakis: A pioneer of the avant-garde

Tageszeitung (taz), on the occasion of this year’s organization of the Music Festival in Berlin and the tribute to the Greek composer Iannis Xenakis whose birth is 100 years old, carries out a brief review of his life and artistic steps. The Berlin newspaper points out that Xenakis “became a symbol for post-war modernism, without however belonging to any of the dominant currents of the time. On the contrary, he himself gave the stimuli for the development of musical currents”.

DW – Chrysa Vachcevanou

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