Turkish police detained a Russian couple inside Istanbul’s Hagia Sophia on 13 July after the man read aloud from a Bible in the sixth-century monument, which has functioned as a mosque since 2020. The pair, identified by Russian media as Viktoria and Igor, were charged under Article 216 of the Turkish Penal Code—covering incitement to hatred or hostility among the population—and transferred to a deportation centre for foreign nationals in the Arnavutköy district. Turkish authorities are now weighing their expulsion from the country.

The Russian Consulate General in Istanbul confirmed it is investigating the circumstances and has established contact with the couple’s lawyer, a sworn translator, and Turkish competent bodies. According to the detainees, they were surrounded by security personnel, escorted from the building, and later separated from each other at the facility. Turkish police sources, cited by Russia’s state-owned TASS agency, acknowledged the incident but declined further comment. No official statement has been released by the Turkish government detailing the specific grounds for the charge.

The episode unfolds at a site whose status remains a point of international friction. Originally constructed as a Byzantine cathedral in 537, Hagia Sophia was converted into a mosque after the Ottoman conquest of Constantinople in 1453, then designated a museum in 1934 under Mustafa Kemal Atatürk’s secularising reforms. In 2020, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan revoked the museum status and reopened the UNESCO World Heritage site for Muslim worship. The decision drew criticism from Washington and the European Union, which warned it could deepen religious divisions, and from the Russian Orthodox Church, which called it a “threat to the whole of Christian civilization.” The upper gallery, where the Bible reading reportedly occurred, continues to operate as a museum area accessible to tourists for a fee.

The couple remains in detention while Turkish migration authorities decide on deportation. The Russian consulate has stated it is monitoring the case and maintaining contact with all relevant parties. The incident adds a legal and diplomatic dimension to the long-standing sensitivities surrounding religious expression inside the landmark, though Ankara has yet to publicly address the charges or the broader implications.