Turkey's Hagia Sophia will open to visitors outside prayer times and its Christian icons will remain, religious officials said on Tuesday, after a court ruling paved the way for it to become a mosque.

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MOSCOW, July 15. /TASS/. Icons and frescos of Hagia Sophia will be preserved as they are despite the change in status, Turkish Ambassador to Russia Mehmet Samsar said in an interview with TASS.

ISTANBUL — Turkey has begun a new phase in sweeping restorations of the nearly 1,500-year-old Hagia Sophia in Istanbul, focusing on preserving the monument’s historic domes from the threat of ...