Hagia Sophia and how conflict is a dynamic process

Last week, Turkey’s Highest Court of Justice established that #HagiaSophia Museum, currently under #UNESCO heritage, a former Basilica and Mosque, to be re-open as a Mosque. This decision came after a several months process and led to a chain of reactions from all around the #world: on the one side, President Erdogan and his supporters (Muslims), and on the other hand, Christians, such as the Greek Government, Pope Francis, Ortodox Head oh Churches, EU and US representatives.

Hagia Sophia, Istanbul. Photo: trtworld.com

This is the type of conflict that fits great as an example for the idea which states that a conflict is nested phenomenon from the ‘Nested theory of conflict’ of Mere Dugan, in the way that the roots of it are very deep throughout the history of the last 15 centuries.

We see now that the Greek (especially) are angry about this decision (even protesting about it) as a top of an iceberg, having its significance deep into the historical meaning Christians vs. Muslims, more specifically, Byzantines and Ottomans. This leads me to the concept of a cultural dimension of change that could emerge out of this situation. One of the reasons for this statement is the fact that this event can really put the emphasis over the historical patterns that still shadows in Europe: East vs. West, proving, once again, the fact that conflict is a dynamic process.

To this point, what the cultural sphere of understanding from this outcome can be is that it brings out the unspoken differences (cultural, in this case) that are still awake from the medieval times in Europe and Middle east, and although I am not willing to give now a solution or the transformation path that this could lead to, we can rely on the fact that cultural pattern is awaken now during this conflict and it will be more facile to recognize it and, in the near future, to understand its possible solutions.