Cypriot delegation head and vice-president of the parliamentary assembly of the Council of Europe, Nicos Tornaritis, called for Hagia Sophia to be returned to museum status during a meeting of the assembly’s cultural committee held in Istanbul on Tuesday.
Tornaritis said the restoration of museum status was necessary to safeguard the monument’s “universal, historical and cultural value”.
He said Hagia Sophia, listed as a UNESCO World Heritage site, should be
