Biohacking encompasses a range of self-optimization strategies aimed at improving health, well-being, and lifespan.

Common biohacking methods include specific nutritional approaches, physical activity regimens, supplement use, medical monitoring, and mental health practices.

Nutritionally, biohackers often practice intermittent fasting, ketogenic diets, and elimination of inflammatory foods such as gluten and dairy.

The "bulletproof diet," which combines high-fat foods, intermittent fasting, and avoidance of certain vegetables, is popular within this community.

Clinical research supports benefits of intermittent fasting and ketogenic diets in improving metabolic markers and reducing inflammation, though effects can vary individually.

Eliminating potential allergens like gluten or dairy may help some people but lacks broad evidence as a universal health improvement.

The bulletproof diet's efficacy beyond standard ketogenic approaches remains under-studied and should be approached with caution, especially regarding long-term nutrient adequacy .

Physical practices among biohackers include extreme exercise routines and cold exposure therapies such as ice baths.

These methods aim to boost metabolism, reduce inflammation, and enhance recovery.

Scientific studies support benefits of cold therapy in inflammation reduction and mental resilience, while intermittent intense exercise improves cardiovascular and muscular health.

However, "extreme" exercise without proper recovery increases risks of injury, burnout, and immune suppression .

Supplement intake is a prominent biohacking component, often involving numerous antioxidants, anti-inflammatory agents, and longevity compounds such as spermidine or collagen.

While some supplements have well-established safety profiles, many popular biohacking supplements lack rigorous clinical validation, and indiscriminate multiple supplement use may cause adverse effects, including toxicity or potential cancer risks.

Biohacking encompasses a range of self-optimization strategies aimed at improving health, well-being, and lifespan.

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Biohacking & Toxic Masculinity: How Women Dismantled The Boys Club

Author: Medical reviewer:
Beauty & Health Editor
By Jamie Schneider
Beauty & Health Editor
Jamie Schneider is the Beauty Editor at mindbodygreen. She has a B.A. in Organizational Studies and English from the University of Michigan, and her work has appeared in Coveteur, The Chill Times, and Wyld Skincare.
Medical review by
Bindiya Gandhi, M.D.
Physician
Dr. Bindiya Gandhi is an American Board Family Medicine–certified physician who completed her family medicine training at Georgia Regents University/Medical College of Georgia.
Image by Sonja Lekovic / Stocksy
We carefully vet all products and services featured on mindbodygreen using our commerce guidelines. Our selections are never influenced by the commissions earned from our links.

Take a quick search for “biohacker” on TikTok (a tag with over 137 million views), and you’ll discover a slew of men discussing their muscle gains, testosterone levels, and cold plunge routines. You’ll see some women on the page, but the space is undoubtedly dominated by male energy. And think of the outspoken biohackers you may listen to on podcasts—chances are most of them are men, too.

This gendered approach to biohacking, while pervasive, is simply misguided. But now, women are asserting their authority in health optimization, and we expect their emphasis to soar in the year ahead.

Meet the experts

Molly Maloof. M.D.

Molly Maloof. M.D. provides health optimization and personalized medicine to high-achieving entrepreneurs, investors, and technology executives. Since 2012, she has worked as an advisor or consultant to more than 50 companies in the digital health, consumer health, and biotechnology industries. Her company, Adamo Bioscience, is working on sexual health optimization.

Gabrielle Lyon, D.O.

Gabrielle Lyon, D.O. is a board-certified family physician leading a disruption in modern medicine that focuses on the largest organ in the body: skeletal muscle. With a background that includes a combined research and clinical fellowship in geriatrics and nutritional sciences at Washington University and undergraduate training in nutritional sciences at the University of Illinois, she is a subject-matter expert on protein for health, performance, aging, and disease prevention.

Stacy Salvi

Stacy Salvi is the vice president of product and strategy at the medical device company Movano Health—the creator of the Evie Ring, the first medical-grade health wearable designed for women.

Mona Vand, PharmD

Mona Vand, PharmD studied pharmacy at Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences before developing her platform that shares holistic wellness advice.

Why biohacking isn’t just for “bros”

“Women are the original biohackers,” declares family physician, Molly Maloof, M.D. “Our hormones change throughout our lives, and this requires us to adapt accordingly.” Our biology means that women often need to constantly edit their health routines and experiment with lifestyle habits as time goes on. Isn’t that the very definition of biohacking?

Let's back up: Here at mindbodygreen, we think of “biohacking” as the practice of making lifestyle tweaks to optimize health and promote longevity. Not shortcuts—contrary to popular belief—but low-lift, everyday habits that complement and enhance an existing well-being routine. Think: optimizing your exercise regimen using tools and techniques (the “biohacks”) to enhance muscle growth. It’s essentially all about advancing health with “do it yourself” biology—a topic that can pique anyone’s interest, regardless of gender.

“[Women] have a most complex physiological lifecycle that requires us to track and manage fertility, pregnancy, breastfeeding, sexuality, perimenopause, and menopause. So we should be looking at biohacking as a path to even greater health and owning the opportunity to improve our lives,” says Maloof.

Yet many women feel intimidated to enter the biohacking scene as it exists today, turned off by the male-dominated energy in the room.

Women are the original biohackers

Molly Maloof, M.D

“Biohacking has always grabbed my attention, and I want to learn, but it sometimes makes me really stressed out, because I go into this state of perfectionism where I have to do all the things,” says doctor of pharmacy and wellness practitioner Mona Vand, PharmD. “The few biohackers that I followed were all males… it just doesn't really resonate with my energy.”

This male energy is not only frustrating but can potentially harm women’s health in the long run. After all, building muscle, prioritizing protein, and keeping an eye on various health metrics are crucial for longevity—in some cases, these proactive measures can save lives. When women don’t get involved, it can totally impact their well-being.

“Physical strength is nonnegotiable,” says functional medicine doctor Gabrielle Lyon, D.O. “I've been a physician since 2006, and I've never heard someone say, ‘I regret being physically strong.’” And the muscle-building space impacts more than just physiological changes, she says. “You optimize fertility, you make healthier babies, you help the epigenetics of your child,” Lyon adds. “You age better, your skin is better, you're less likely to fall and break a hip… There's nothing that doesn't get better the stronger you are.”

So let’s be clear: Dismantling the biohacking boy’s club is not just about helping women feel included; there are real health implications at stake here.

Why the biohacker space actually really needs a dose of feminine energy

I’d be remiss not to mention how biohacking culture can easily become synonymous with hustle culture (some experts don’t even like to use the term, as it implies you can achieve optimal health with quick fixes). But as more women enter the biohacking space, we expect it to become more intuitive and less about hitting every single benchmark. From there, we predict women will focus more on sustainable changes long-term instead of a gazillion quick hacks.

“I used to think it was a flex to do a million things at the same time and habit stack,” Vand recounts. “I now carve out time for doing things that have no efficiency to them, that are strictly for joy or rest and relaxation, versus benefiting my longevity or health. It can be a little bit obsessive when you get into this thought pattern, and I just don't resonate with it.”

This doesn’t mean biohacking will become “softer” as it embraces feminine energy. But there’s an opportunity here for women to introduce some much-needed flexibility into a space that has long felt needlessly rigid.

How the biohacker game is changing — and where it’s headed next

Thanks to a growing awareness that healthcare protocols should not be gendered, more women are now starting to pay attention to markers of performance like lean muscle, hormetic stressors, VO2 max, HRV, zone 2 training, etc. “Cold plunging, saunas, and harder, more physical activities are not just for the boys anymore,” adds Lyon—and we expect an even bigger shift to come in 2024.

“I think it’s super exciting to see biohacking become more mainstream and more women joining the conversation,” adds Maloof. She praises apps like Wild.AI, for women who aim to make lifestyle adjustments based on their menstrual cycle, and Zero, for women who want to dabble in time-restricted eating, both of which have helped to herald the shift.

Other existing health optimization companies are now inviting women into the conversation by introducing specific features informed by their unique physiology. WHOOP, for example, is currently working on upgrades to their popular health-tracking band: “We did a study recently where we learned a lot about how a woman's body changes during pregnancy and how her heart rate variability (HRV) will evolve. It'll decrease, and then about seven weeks before she gives birth, it will increase sharply,” explains Will Ahmed, WHOOP founder and CEO, on the mindbodygreen podcast

If a woman didn’t know that this was supposed to happen, she might look at this stark increase with a critical (or anxious) eye. “We've been able to take population-level data on pregnant women and now have a feature in the app, where a woman can see how her body is evolving alongside what other pregnant women are experiencing,” he adds.

Similarly, creatine supplements—from the ingredients to the packaging—are no longer marketed toward dudes looking to bulk up, and we are certainly here for it. After all, muscle mass is a predictor of longevity and healthspan, so supplements that promote it can help all of us “hack” our health in a big way.

And as Lyon notes, women have lower endogenous creatine stores compared to men (meaning, they have less available). And the amino acid has been associated with significantly increased muscle mass1 in both men and women, without increasing the risk of adverse outcomes2, like weight gain. “Most of the women in my practice will go on creatine, and they find anecdotally that it really improves both anaerobic and aerobic exercise performance,” Lyon shares.

Not to mention the supplement’s brain health perks: Taking creatine has been shown to benefit both working memory and processing speed3 as well as cognitive longevity4. “It is above and beyond simply sport performance,” adds Lyon, who has certainly seen an uptick in women curious about creatine.

As women feel intimidated (or even restricted) by biohacking spaces, some experts have taken it upon themselves to create new ones that center the feminine. For example, neuropsychophysiologist Kayla Osterhoff, MPH, offers a Women's Biohacking Mini Course, consisting of lifestyle routines and tips aligned with female physiology.

Osterhoff also recently presented at the 2023 Dragonfly Live Conference—among other female biohackers—to discuss the latest advancements in women's well-being and the “health revolution” that’s sweeping the mainstream. This conference aims to gather the “who's-who” in the health space to discuss cutting-edge strategies and innovations that optimize well-being—by having women biohackers at the forefront of the conversation, we can expect them to hit the main stage in a broader sense.

Or take the brand new Evie Ring, the first medical-grade health wearable designed for women, created by medical device company Movano Health. The technology ties hormonal information to a woman’s sleep, activity, and heart health data (among other metrics).

For instance, “If we notice a more restless night of sleep in the luteal phase, we'll point it out and also give some strategies for how somebody may attack their day, despite having not gotten as good of a night of sleep,” says Stacy Salvi, vice president of product and strategy at Movano Health. Similarly, “We know that there are cardiovascular implications when your estrogen drops, so they would want to keep a better look on the function of their heart,” she adds. “This would be something that they would be able to do from our app.”

Even the design itself was made with women in mind: The ring features an open band meant to accommodate how women’s fingers change in size throughout the day, so it can stay comfortable.

To avoid needless stress, Evie also limits the amount of goals you can set on the app. “You can only set three at a time, because we do not want to overwhelm [users] with a bunch of different things,” says Salvi. “I mean, I'm an overachiever. I probably would set every single goal and then fail at them.” And heaven knows we don’t need yet another way for busy, overwhelmed women to feel like they’re failing in a society with unsurmountable standards.

Forecasting the future

A woman walks up to the weight rack in 2024. She sees the usual suspects—bros pounding protein shakes and grunting through their bicep curls—but now she also sees a fair amount of women on the scene. They’ve got creatine supplements! Fitness trackers! Kettlebells! (And no, they aren’t pink.)

Granted, we still have a ways to go before women feel totally embraced by the biohacking space (we’d first have to close the centuries-long gender gap in science and medicine), but it’s clear that the arena is becoming way less of a boy’s club. “And the world is ready, my friend,” says Lyon. “The world is absolutely ready for this.”

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Common biohacking methods include specific nutritional approaches, physical activity regimens, supplement use, medical monitoring, and mental health practices.

Title:

Content: TV legend Davinia Taylor has revealed how well she is feeling after undertaking a new lifestyle that involves biohacking.

Biohacking occurs when someone changes their nutrition and lifestyle in order to make themselves healthier. Each person who biohacks does so in a different way whether it’s cutting out alcohol, taking supplements, or engaging in anti-ageing procedures.

Davinia – who starred in Hollyoaks – has explained that her biohacking involves cold-water therapy and removing inflammatory foods from her diet.

As a result of her new lifestyle, which also includes the use of saunas and supplements, Davinia has said that she now feels healthier than she ever has before.

Speaking to Hello! Davinia said that she entered a difficult period of poor mental health after the death of her mother when she was 35.

She added: “Boredom drove me to drink and then to eat unhealthily. I don’t want to go into my 50s feeling bored, so I had to find another way to get the dopamine I crave.”

On the techniques she uses for her biohacking, Davinia reveals that one of her routine acts is taking supplements from a company she founded. Known as WillPowders which contain collagen, protein, bone broth, and MCT (a healthy form of saturated fat) they have become an essential part of her routine.

Davinia explained: “If I don’t have my morning keto creamer and collagen, I’m going to end up binging on croissants or brownies. It’s how I’m wired after my 1980s upbringing.”

This isn’t the first time Davinia has spoken about biohacking. Earlier this year she told the Evening Standard that it wasn’t a case of taking big measures to improve one’s health.

She said: “There's so much doom and gloom… There's so much doom and gloom…There are so many little hacks you can do just to make yourself feel mentally better.”

Davinia highlighted the benefits of cold-water therapy, a method she said can be cheap to access: “The water’s freezing in this country two-thirds of the time. And on the few months a year when it’s not, just go to the supermarket, buy some ice bags and empty them into the bath.”

Nutritionally, biohackers often practice intermittent fasting, ketogenic diets, and elimination of inflammatory foods such as gluten and dairy.

The "bulletproof diet," which combines high-fat foods, intermittent fasting, and avoidance of certain vegetables, is popular within this community.

Title:

Content: 18 +
• Health
• Health
Health care
Naive biohacking: why is it dangerous to take vitamins “just in case ” and is it true that hacking the body is the way to nowhere (and not to eternal life)
To live longer (for herself and her family), to avoid cancer and heart disease, biohacking enthusiast (now in the past!) and lifestyle podcaster Teresa Skrobanek conducted an experiment and plunged into the world of a thousand and one supplements for longevity.
Whose infectious example was she inspired by?
What was the danger of taking her medicine for diabetes and vitamin B capsules (it is recommended for everyone to calm down!)?
After what biohacking did Teresa really feel better?
Let ’ s share her story.
Master1305
Biohacking experiment
At the end of 2022, Teresa Skrobanek, a responsible mother and grandmother, decided to try to include “longevity ” supplements in her diet.
The general goal is to live as long as possible (for yourself and your family) and avoid breast cancer and heart disease, the risk of which is higher in women over fifty (and Teresa was 57 at the time).
Anti-age drugs were prescribed by a doctor, but, apparently, the specialist was free to relate to the ratio of anamnesis and goals of taking drugs.
In April 2023, Teresa discovered that the capsules in her medicine cabinet were metformin, which is usually prescribed to patients with type II diabetes.
Although the woman did not suffer from this disease, the doctor prescribed the drug due to the fact that the results of the studies were encouraging (but not guaranteed!) - it helps to fight aging
Teresa has also tried over-the-counter drugs, such as nicotinamide mononucleotide (NMN) supplements, which supposedly, but not proven, speed up metabolism and reduce signs of growing up.
According to the experimentalist, she followed the example of the brightest biohacker – IT billionaire Brian Johnson, who takes about two dozen supplements a day, uses at least 7 skin creams and annually spends $2 million on unusual procedures to restore youth (for example, bowel photos, blood transfusions, weekly acid peels and laser therapy).
20 supplements a day and no rejuvenation
The more and longer Teresa took the drugs, the more she doubted.
Feeling worse, and Skrobanek plunged headlong into the study of dietary supplements - the results were contradictory.
For example, studies have shown that the widely advertised low-age supplements of nicotinamide riboside (a form of vitamin B3) increase the risk of brain cancer.
And the unpleasant consequences of the use of metformin (remember, Teresa took the medicine for diabetes, not being a diabetic!) were headaches, drowsiness and anxiety.
“I started to have a headache.
I felt very tired, although the pills were supposed to give me strength, ” Skrobanek told The New York Post, with whom she shared her entire story.
How do I know that taking these substances will not harm my kidneys or liver and will not cause cancer in 5-10 years? ”
beast01
Errors made by Teresa, which can not be made by biohackers novice
At TikTok, where the hashtag # BioHacking has garnered more than half a billion views, proponents of the biohacking movement boast of swallowing 70 to 150 different rejuvenating dietary supplements every day.
For example, to slow down the aging process, businessman Joe Cohen takes rapamycin, an FDA-approved drug that a 2014 study found could help increase life expectancy.
However, Cohen told The Post that he does not recommend a strict regime to his followers: mindlessly copying from and to the anti-age program of trendsetters is dangerous!
Instead, an experienced biohacker (Joe says he ’ s been studying this phenomenon for 20 years!) encourages newcomers to take blood tests first to determine the body ’ s biological needs and deficiencies, carefully examine the benefits and side effects of any supplements, and take only what seems right.
Cohen clarifies: “By understanding your physiology, you can take certain medications that will boost your energy, mood, and chances of avoiding age-related illnesses.
Preserving health is much more important than simply prolonging existence. ”
According to the businessman, his goal is to live as long and healthy a life as possible (and not necessarily up to 150 years)!
Roman Samborskyi
If not biohacking, then what (spoiler: food)
New York City Nutrition nutritionist Diana Rodriguez agrees with Cohen.
But to start your way to longevity offers still not with tablets, but with a healthy diet: “It is recommended to use food as the first method of preventing dangerous diseases.
Fruits, vegetables, low-fat proteins, nuts and legumes, in which "tons" of vitamins and minerals, can be very useful. "
Increasing nutrient intake through organic whole foods is something Teresa Scrobanek started doing in June 2023, when she gave up the supplement diet once and for all.
And she never felt better:
“If a long life meant that I got it with terrible side effects due to taking supplements, then I would prefer a shorter, but better life, which is based on proper nutrition and training, ” concluded Teresa.
The editors remind that drugs, vitamins, dietary supplements and food products have contraindications.
A specialist consultation is required.
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Clinical research supports benefits of intermittent fasting and ketogenic diets in improving metabolic markers and reducing inflammation, though effects can vary individually.

Title:

Content: I’m 58 but have a biological age of 21 – this is how I did it

After eight rounds of failed fertility treatments and a rheumatoid arthritis diagnosis, Leslie Kenny changed her lifestyle with the aim of reducing inflammation – the results, she says, were dramatic

Leslie Kenny was 39 and had endured eight rounds of failed fertility treatments, including IVF using a donor egg, when her doctor delivered even more bad news: the pain she’d been feeling in her wrists and fingers was rheumatoid arthritis (RA), and her blood tests showed signs of the disabling autoimmune condition lupus.

“The doctor prescribed me immunosuppressants and said, ‘You have five good years left’,” Kenny says. “I don’t know what that meant but I took it as ‘that’s all you’ve got’ – that this was the end. I was crushed.”

Lupus is an autoimmune condition in which the immune system attacks the body’s own tissues and causes inflammation that can cause permanent damage to the skin, joints, heart, lungs, kidneys and even the brain. There is no known cure, although it may relapse and remit. RA, another autoimmune condition, affects the joints leading to inflammation and thickening in the joints, which causes pain and reduced mobility. Again, there are treatments available, but it cannot be cured.

That bombshell diagnosis came in 2004. Today, Kenny is 58 and a slim, healthy woman with boundless energy. Her arthritis and lupus – a diagnosis she now questions – have gone into remission. But more than that, she appears to have beat the ageing process: recent blood tests show her biological age is just 21.

She took the “GlycanAge” blood test while attending a conference on longevity in the US. It is offered by a London-based bioinformatics company and measures levels of inflammation in your body. The results are based on determining the process of ageing as an accumulation of damage to your body over time by over-activation of the immune system, leading to inflammation of the tissues and cells. The result generates an estimated “biological age” depending on the average level of inflammation observed in the body at various points during a normal lifespan.

“Inflammation is the thing that I have been paying attention to for the last 19 years, so I suppose it’s not a surprise,” Kenny says.

Kenny is likely one of only a handful of people who could achieve such results. She is one of a breed of ‘biohacking’ devotees who swear by putting cutting-edge research into cell rejuvenation into practice in their own lives to keep their bodies and minds young, and to fight off the common causes of ageing, including inflammation, high blood sugar and cardiovascular degeneration.

The most well known of these biohackers is Bryan Johnson, the American multi-millionaire entrepreneur and venture capitalist. At 46, he spends $2m (£1.5m) a year on treatments and techniques – including restricting calories, taking large amounts of daily supplements, a strict sleep schedule that involves early nights and very early mornings, and blood transfusions – in an attempt to stop the ageing process.

He claims to have reversed his heart age by five years and has the lung capacity of an 18-year-old. Of his particular quest, Kenny reflects: “That very British saying ‘horses for courses’ comes to mind… but he is biohacking for immortality, whereas I prefer to think of myself as ‘bioharmonising’ for a healthy lifespan.”

Kenny is the co-founder of a not-for-profit group, the Oxford Longevity Project, whose aim is to get the latest groundbreaking ideas and research findings on anti-ageing and longevity to the widest possible audience – and she’s testing them out on her own body.

She set up the organisation with Oxford biologist Professor Denis Noble; Dr Paul Ch’en, a GP with a special interest in the ageing process; and academic and multiple marathon runner Sir Christopher Ball. Kenny brings lived experience as a patient who has seen her own health transformed by putting the latest academic findings into practice.

It was the shock of such a devastating diagnosis at such a young age that prompted Kenny to start doing her own research into autoimmune conditions and inflammation. It encouraged her to turn away from the pharmaceutical answers given by her doctors and find a new approach.

“I did try immunosuppressants and I really hated them. You had to jab yourself in the tummy. There are lots of bruises and it hurts. I just felt I shouldn’t be doing this,” she explains. “I have more of an Asian philosophical orientation, of the idea of bringing the body into balance rather than ‘let’s squash this symptom’. What I wanted to do was bring the body back into harmony.”

Back in 2004 the internet was still in its relative infancy, but patient groups had already started forming to share information on common health conditions. Kenny searched for anything she could find about the link between autoimmune disorders and inflammation in the body. She found there were common causes of inflammation including poor diet, lack of sleep, stress and undiagnosed allergies.

Kenny quit her job (she was, at the time, running a matchmaking agency) to reduce stress and improve sleep, and then overhauled her diet. Allergy testing found she was reacting to wheat and dairy, so she cut both out, and also reduced her sugar intake.

“At the time the idea that sugar was bad for you was kind of a new thing, but I removed sugar from my diet as much as I could and then took lots of foods that were anti-inflammatory,” she says. This involved a largely plant-based diet, also including oily fish such as salmon, lots of extra virgin olive oil and plant milks. She followed guidance from Dr Barry Sears, whose bestselling book The Zone Anti-Inflammatory Diet, had been recently released.

Then, after much discussion with autoimmune sufferers in the US, Kenny took a very radical – and expensive – step: online patient networks in the US were recommending intravenous immunoglobulin, a treatment that resets the immune system by replacing antibodies in your blood but was not recommended on the NHS. Kenny underwent two eight-hour blood transfusions at a hospital in Denver, Colorado in the United States, costing £24,000 and funded by health insurance provided by her then-husband’s employer. It is offered as a treatment for some conditions on the NHS, but not for lupus or RA.

Six months later her blood results had been reversed. The three readings her doctor was monitoring – C Reactive Protein, cytokines and TNFalpha, all of which measure inflammation and the function of the immune system – had reduced rapidly. Her doctor reported that her lupus appeared to be in full remission and she was free of disease and in control of her arthritis symptoms.

Kenny’s rapid success at improving her health kicked off a passion for self-management of illness and ageing that has defined her last two decades. “I really feel that patients need to have a chance of a fair fight,” she says, adding that not everyone can afford expensive blood infusions, but there are many things we can all do cheaply to improve our health.

Living in Oxford and surrounded by academics, Kenny began discussing her results with local friends and neighbours, including Lachlan MacKinnon, who was working on commercialising biotechnology for the Oxford Science Enterprise. He introduced her to Prof Katja Simon and Dr Ghada Alsaleh, who were both working at the Kennedy Institute for Rheumatology at Oxford University at the time, who had discovered something quite surprising – spermidine. “He [Lachlan] said, ‘It’s a terrible name, but it’s really interesting because it seems to be helping with the immune system’.”

In mice, spermidine – a polyamine found in high levels in plants such as mushrooms and fermented foods – was able to boost antibody levels in elderly subjects, keeping the immune system strong, and activate the process of autophagy: a natural cell rejuvenation process that usually happens during periods of fasting.

You may have heard the word recently due to Rishi Sunak’s commitment to a 48-hour fast every week. Consuming spermidine is believed to make the same cellular process happen, but without the inconvenience of starvation. Studies are ongoing but the first published papers also show the same effect in humans as mice.

Kenny has been taking a spermidine supplement ever since, and now promotes these findings alongside other new research through the Oxford Longevity Project.

Kenny also follows a ketogenic diet, very low in carbohydrate and higher in protein, which some academic research shows can help to preventing and treat diabetes, controlling blood sugar spikes and reducing inflammation.

Kenny’s daily routine also includes supplements of collagen, antioxidant-rich raw cacao, and glutathione, which helps repair tissues. She takes HRT to manage her body’s transition through the menopause and says the progesterone helps with restful sleep.

Two days a week she fasts for 16 hours, but she admits “I’m not slavish about it”. More important is the foods you do eat. “The Japanese drink and smoke like chimneys but they only lose four years of life to this, but in the UK we lose 10. It’s because they’re microdosing every day with green tea, they’re eating natto, which is full of spermidine; they’re eating fish full of Omega 3, and lots of fermented foods.”

Kenny walks her dog for at least 30 minutes a day and has an active life. She uses katsu bands, a product from Japan similar to a blood pressure cuff, which pulls the blood into one limb for 30 seconds then when it releases “the blood hits the pituitary gland and says ‘I’ve been lifting heavy weights’, and sends hormones to repair the body,” she explains.

She also uses an inversion chair – a small stool that makes doing a headstand easy for anyone, whatever their age – that trains the core and stimulates the vagus nerve, responsible for the regulation of organ functions such as digestion, heart rate and respiratory rate.

The efforts of figures like Kenny are being watched by experts. Vasa Curcin, professor of health informatics at King’s College London, says the “exciting work” going on among the global community of biohackers is “a huge opportunity to raise awareness and identify challenges for novel therapies and lifestyle tech interventions”.

But he adds: “We need to start considering pragmatic methods that would allow for these efforts to stop being just anecdotal evidence and start contributing to larger knowledge bases to support scientifically rigorous validation studies.”

So what is Kenny’s advice to the rest of us? “The most important thing is to get started and just do one thing. Whether that’s diet or putting a weight by the kettle and doing a bicep curl while you boil it. Just ask yourself to do it once a week, and the next week do it twice a week. Do it slowly and then it becomes a habit.”

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According to the studies, how does intermittent fasting help?

It reduces the risk of lifestyle-related diseases, such as metabolic disorders.

Eliminating potential allergens like gluten or dairy may help some people but lacks broad evidence as a universal health improvement.

Title:

Content: New superhuman brains.
About drugs that make you smarter and more miserable!
Entrepreneur and programmer Dave Asbury ’ s mornings may not seem different at first glance than anyone else ’ s.
Dave wakes up and takes his young children to school, then comes home and makes himself a breakfast of coffee and butter.
Then, he walks into his office, reaches out to a corner, pulls several capsules out of boxes that look like medicine, and then starts working.
[1] Here it is.
Everything is normal, until we discover that the capsules he takes are not really drugs, but drugs.
Dave ’ s use of these drugs cannot be considered strange: throughout human history, before civilizations even existed, drugs accompanied humans.
For the damage that may lead the individual to death, some found in them an escape from the worries and burdens of life, although the price they will pay for this is high.
What is really strange is that what Dave, and many others, want from taking a certain type of drug is the complete opposite of all this; he doesn ’ t want to get away with it every morning; he wants to indulge more in it and manipulate it to his advantage; he wants to become smarter, more productive, richer.
Dave ’ s drugs are neither weed nor opioid, nor are they similar to any other familiar drug, Dave taking nootropics, or “smart ” drugs.
The chemist C.C. didn't have a clue.
Giragia Yuma said that the word he invented as the name for the drug Pristam, which he installed in his laboratory one day in 1964, would become so popular 60 years later.
The name of this compound came from the combination of the Greek words "nos", which means brain, and "tropin", which means "me," and created in his laboratory the first drug that he hopes will succeed in bending the brain of those who use it.
[2] Like any medicine.
Another, Gergea designed the prestam as a treatment, and he hoped it would help patients with brain and cognitive disorders, such as Alzheimer ’ s in the elderly and speech disorders in children.
But most Nutrobix users now are often completely healthy individuals with no brain abnormality, and do not aim to cure themselves of a disease.
[3]
Smart drug users are also different from any other type of drug users: they are not marginalized groups or young Magna people who dose drugs in dark dens or raucous parties; nootropics are some of the world ’ s finest college students and some of the brightest tech minds in Silicon Valley, the tech heartland of San Francisco.
By taking drugs that are mostly made for people with cognitive disorders as a result of mental illness, these brilliant students and programmers want to enhance their ability to learn, focus and think creatively to become smarter, which seems to be happening under the influence of these drugs.
Phoebe, a history student at a prestigious university in England, describes the impact of nootropics on her in an interview with The Guardian: “These drugs help you work, so you can study longer without distractions.
You feel like going to the library on your own, and you don ’ t even want to take a lunch break.
You look at the clock and it ’ s 7: 00 p.m., but you can still keep going. ”
Johnny, a student at the same university, describes his first experience with drugs: "I had a strange feeling, I remember sitting in the exam and thinking, 'This is terrible!
Oh, my God!
I feel as if I ’ m going to lose consciousness, ” but at the same time I could remember everything, whole paragraphs remembered word for word.
That was great. "[4]
It all sounds really cool, taking a few pills in the morning gives you an incredible ability to work and think.
But, as anyone who has ever taken a drug knows, every drug has side effects that range in severity, from mild things like a headache to symptoms as severe as the disease for which you took it, and additional drugs have to be taken to treat it.
So what are the side effects of entropy?
There aren ’ t enough studies to answer this question, but many people ’ s long-term experience with Nutrobox has never been promising.
Writer and journalist Kate Miller tells her story with those drugs that she started taking after a student in her final year of university, continuing with her after entering her career.
At first, everything seemed great, she found that she could concentrate for long hours and work tirelessly until late at night, and with all this, she was able to maintain a good social life.
But not long after, the ugly face of Nootropics revealed itself to her: Kate became an addict.
In her New York Times article, Kate recounts what she went through: “I was fooling myself when I thought I could stay balanced while taking these drugs, when I thought the benefits outweighed the harm.
I started to increase the doses I was taking, and then, I found myself spending long nights flipping over in bed and falling asleep, my mind racing and my heart beating violently.
When I woke up the next morning, the first thing I did was reach out to take the pills again.
My body started getting used to these drugs, and then I lost their effect, so I started to increase the dose.
I would take it if I found myself yawning after I turned off the alarm.
I turned into a wreck, always angry and lost my ability to connect with the world. ”
Kate reached the point where she found her life was falling apart on all levels, and here came her decision to stop taking those drugs once and for all.
But what no one has told her is that stopping itself will be difficult, as nitrobix, like other drugs, leaves its users at the beginning of quitting defenseless in front of a barrage of painful withdrawal symptoms.
“I found myself sleeping during meetings and I couldn ’ t finish my work before the deadline.
I also began to feel very hungry and began to eat heavily.
This disorder left me with a very fragile and sensitive brain chemistry, and my weight gain and late work only made matters worse.
It was hard for me to understand at the time that what I was going through was withdrawal symptoms; no one had warned me about the side effects of these drugs. ”
Phoebe and Jonny, students who had been helped by Nootropics during the exam period, soon noticed the bad effect on them; Phoebe began to feel severe pain in her stomach, and Jimmy felt that he was becoming too dependent on her for everything, and he ate it every morning without really needing it.
Fortunately, before they went through Kate ’ s bad experience, the Taliban gave up Nutropics altogether.
Even Dave Asbury, an entrepreneur who takes huge amounts of nootropics every morning and founded a company that makes coffee mixed with the drugs, has developed a severe allergy to certain foods that he has been eating normally throughout his life.
In a paper in the journal Clinical Neuroscience, researchers Farid Taleh and Jane Aglotti found that many Nutrobix drugs cause side effects ranging in severity from diarrhea, headaches, dizziness and insomnia, to memory loss, identity disorders and motor system deficiencies.
The research also included a case study of four individuals between the ages of 17 and 28 who were taken to the hospital emergency room after a nervous breakdown. [6] Here, we find ourselves faced with a more important question: Why would people with high levels of intelligence resort to drugs that may add to their intelligence even deeper, but they may also have side effects that no one knows are serious?
[7]
Tim Farris, an entrepreneur and renowned author of human development books, has no real qualms about the long-term side effects of nootropics.
Speaking to CNN, after he started talking about the amount of pressure entrepreneurs are under today, he concluded: “Just like an Olympian who is willing to do anything, even if he reduces his age to five years, to win a gold medal, you ’ ll think about any drugs you take to become smarter. ”
[8]
Jeff Wu, a software engineer who set up a company that specializes in manufacturing nootropics, goes on to say, “Creativity and high mental performance are the only ways you can succeed in Silicon Valley.
I liken tech and finance to professional athletes, so the only way for your team, product or project to be successful is to have a comparative advantage over competitors. ”
It ’ s not just the tech industry, Wu adds: “To become smarter and more productive is to meet modern day standards of success. ”
If some people seem willing to swallow poorly researched drugs without suffering from a real disease just to increase their ability to produce something strange, you ’ ve never heard of the term and the practices that these drugs and many other strange practices include: body hacking, or “biohacking. ”
As a programmer or engineer might look at a computer looking for ways to develop it, biohackers are trying through methods that vary in extremes, from intermittent fasting to injecting themselves with stem cells, to make their bodies and brains better, stronger, healthier.
At first glance, this may not seem like a bad thing, so who wouldn ’ t want to be the best possible version of themselves?
But what ’ s interesting about this is that their desire to develop their bodies and brains stops at the point where these bodies and brains are more productive, and does not go beyond them to other areas of life, where none of the body hackers, for example, thought about creating a drug that by taking it more willing to help others in their distress.
Faced with the large number of people who are willing to take Nutropics to increase their production capacity, neuroscientist Anders Sandberg found in a study that only 9% of people are willing to take a drug that makes them more empathetic or kinder.
This increased use of nootropics and the willingness to manipulate the very composition of the body in order to increase production is itself a symptom of a civilizational disease that envelops our world today: the obsession with success at any cost.
The Guardian ’ s Carol Gadwallar says of this: “In the 1960s, sedatives were known as the little helper of mothers.
Today, however, Futropics is a small aid to capitalism.
“It ’ s just another symptom of a world dominated by competition where everyone is looking for a comparative advantage that puts them above others. ”
[10] Neuroscientist Anjan Chatterjee says: "Today, from the moment of their birth until their death, people only know about running in a rat race.
We are overwhelmed by the feeling that there are a limited number of prizes on the horizon and that everyone is competing for them.
It ’ s hard and you ’ re willing to do anything to win. ”
[11]
In this world governed by machines and numbers, we are also expected to become machines: machines that wake up in the morning and work tirelessly until evening falls, and everything is ultimately governed by numbers.
How successful you are depends on how much you produce each day, which at the end of the month will translate into how much you make.
Your salary or wealth is no longer just a means to provide you with a decent life, but has become a kind of obsession, everyone wants to be successful in a modern culture that values only material values, and defies those who fail the test of making money.
In such a culture, it is not surprising to find people willing to swallow drugs with unknown side effects in order to be better.
Isn ’ t that, in one way or another, what modern culture imposes on us all today, working to burn and losing some of life ’ s simplest pleasures just to live properly and escape the stigma of failure?
The question remains: Is there then a relentless pursuit of success, what kind of happiness?
Or is the summit nothing more than a glittering image of something really empty and cold and lonely?
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
Sources:
1.
I ’ m The Guy Who Created Bulletproof Coffee – This Is My Morning Routine
2.
Nootropic
3.
Under pressure, Silicon Valley workers turn to LSD microdosing
4.
Students used to take drugs to get high.
Now they take them to get higher grades
5.
The Last All-Nighter
6.
Probable Nootropicinduced Psychiatric Adverse Effects: A Series of Four Cases
7.
My smart drugs nightmare
8. smart drugs: what silicon valley is on
9.
Under Pressure: Silicon Valley workers turn to lsd
10.
Students used to take drugs to get high.
Now they take them to get higher grades
11.
Under Pressure: Silicon Valley workers turn to lsd
Source: The Island
About this story
“Narcissism ” is a widespread term, often misused to describe anyone who abuses us.
But in fact, a little bit of narcissism will do you good -- this report looks at the evolution of the concept of narcissism over the past decades.
6 / 10 / 2017
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The bulletproof diet's efficacy beyond standard ketogenic approaches remains under-studied and should be approached with caution, especially regarding long-term nutrient adequacy .

What are the risks and dangers of diets?

Physical practices among biohackers include extreme exercise routines and cold exposure therapies such as ice baths.

These methods aim to boost metabolism, reduce inflammation, and enhance recovery.

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Content: Home » biohacking, reprogramming mind and body to live better

biohacking, reprogramming mind and body to live better

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It’s called “biohacking” and it comes from Silicon Valley. Listen: The long life diet: the longevity formula is calorie restriction …

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It’s called “biohacking” and comes from Silicon Valley.

A relatively new word that comes from the union of “biology” and “hacker” and indicates the attempt to positively influence the functioning of the organism, by hacking, ie trying to “force”, one’s genetic heritage. A strategy to live better and longer launched years ago by Californian top managers and which then spread throughout the world. How to upgrade the “operating system” of the human body? No manipulation, here we are talking about “reprogramming” and new lifestyles. “Our genetic heritage has enormous unexpressed potential that can be activated,” he explains Fabio Piccinidoctor and psychoanalyst, researcher of Food Sciences of theMarche Polytechnic University, author of the book “Biohacking Techniques: how to optimize metabolism to increase health and longevity”. “Biohacking aims to activate epigenetic modifications by awakening dormant genes to enhance the body’s resources.” While genetics studies the structure of DNA, epigenetics the way genes express themselves, i.e. how much they are turned on or off. “We’re talking about a set of strategies that aim to strengthen the body from a physical and mental point of view, first of all through nutrition, sleep quality, physical activity, cognitive stimulation”. One of the pillars of biohacking and the intermittent fasting, Piccini adds, which plans to concentrate the diet in a precise time span of the day (to be followed always under medical supervision). «But it is equally important to take care of sleep, we know very well that sleep debt accelerates aging and that 30-40 percent of people sleep too little. Just as it is essential to check thehydration. Physical training must also be intermittent, with recovery periods in place to allow the muscle layers to rebuild. And then, you have to keep learning something at any age, another pillar of biohacking: studying music or a new language, for example, to counteract cognitive degeneration”.

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THE QUALITY OF LIFE

Sandra Milo is one of the supporters of this well-being and longevity strategy. «I’m lucky, at 90 I’m in full health and I still have a great desire to enjoy life. I don’t know if it’s a matter of genetics, nor do I think there is a “magic formula” of longevity, but I have certainly always been careful to lead a healthy life. There is nothing more beautiful than reaching old age with a smile and in full autonomy », says the actress who baptized the first Biohacking Suite in Rome. “Our mission is not so much to lengthen life but to improve its quality by lowering the rate of morbidity,” explains Dr. Claudio Urbani, specialist in regenerative medicine, neuroscience and stress therapy, head of the longevity center Umb. «Biohacking aims to modify dormant functional responses from non-use, from muscular or cardiovascular function to flexibility. It is about regaining possession of the body and the mind-body axis, starting with stress management». Diagnosing your own state of “aging” involves a series of tests. «The measurement of oxidative stress which measures the quantity of free radicals and indicates any inflammatory states, plethysmography to evaluate the functionality of the microcirculation of the legs, impedancemetry to study body composition, fat and lean mass, nutritional status and hydration level. And only after the check is a tailor-made program created for each person. Among the suggested therapies, there is also that of the cold which stimulates the metabolism and reduces inflammation ».

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Scientific studies support benefits of cold therapy in inflammation reduction and mental resilience, while intermittent intense exercise improves cardiovascular and muscular health.

However, "extreme" exercise without proper recovery increases risks of injury, burnout, and immune suppression .

Supplement intake is a prominent biohacking component, often involving numerous antioxidants, anti-inflammatory agents, and longevity compounds such as spermidine or collagen.

While some supplements have well-established safety profiles, many popular biohacking supplements lack rigorous clinical validation, and indiscriminate multiple supplement use may cause adverse effects, including toxicity or potential cancer risks.

What are the risks and dangers of taking frequent nutritional supplements without a doctor's supervision?


President Erdogan's 2020 decision to reconvert the Hagia Sophia from a museum back into a mosque has generated significant controversy both internationally and domestically, impacting cultural, religious, and political perceptions.

The primary criticism concerns the religious sensitivities tied to the Hagia Sophia's layered history as a Byzantine cathedral and Ottoman mosque.

Critics argue that the move privileges Islamic heritage over its Christian past, as many iconic Orthodox mosaics and figures are now concealed or altered to comply with Islamic traditions forbidding depictions of human forms in places of worship.

This has upset Orthodox Christian communities and leaders, particularly in Greece, who see the decision as undermining religious tolerance and threatening the shared cultural and religious legacy of the Orthodox world.

On a political level, Erdogan’s move is widely viewed as motivated by domestic political calculations.

Analysts suggest it serves to consolidate support among Turkey’s conservative and Islamist constituencies by symbolizing a broader Islamic revival and national pride.

This timing, especially following electoral challenges, indicates a use of the Hagia Sophia reconversion as a means of cultural-political mobilization, tapping into religio-nationalist sentiments while diverting attention from economic difficulties.

The decision also drew criticism from international organizations and Western governments.

UNESCO condemned the change, emphasizing that it occurred without prior consultation and expressing concerns about preserving the site's universal cultural heritage.

Western countries worry that the reconversion restricts the inclusive spirit of the Hagia Sophia as a museum and impacts tourism.

Changes to visitor management, including reinstating entrance fees and separating worshippers from tourists, have sparked concerns about reduced tourist access and the site's evolving role as a shared historic monument.

President Erdogan's 2020 decision to reconvert the Hagia Sophia from a museum back into a mosque has generated significant controversy both internationally and domestically, impacting cultural, religious, and political perceptions.

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Content: New rules come into force for the visit of Hagia Sophia Mosque in Turkey - Sunrise Gate
Tuesday 16 January 2024 2: 04 PM Cairo Cairo 24 °
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New rules come into effect for visiting Hagia Sophia mosque in Turkey
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Published on: Tuesday 16 January 2024 - 1: 54 PM | Last updated on Tuesday 16 January 2024 - 1: 54 PM
The project for the Hagia Sophia mosque was closest to the heart of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan – but it was also the project that drew international criticism.
In the summer of 2020, Erdogan restored Hagia Sophia to be a mosque after it was originally a church, converted into an Ottoman mosque, converted into a museum.
At the time, Erdogan assured citizens that entry fees would be abolished, adding that the cultural edifice would remain open to everyone – Muslims or non-Muslims alike.
There will be another major change from January 15, with access to the Hagia Sophia restricted and visitors will have to pay fees again.
Turkish Tourism Minister Mehmet Nuri Arsoy hopes this will improve coexistence between religious and tourist visitors.
Arsoy said recently that tourist visitors are making noise and disrupting calm and prayer.
Until recently, visitors and worshippers were allowed to enter the interior of Hagia Sophia together, with barriers and signs keeping a certain distance between them.
However, from now on, worshippers and tourists will be introduced through different entrances.
Although worshippers can use the same entrances as before, tourists will be guided through an upstairs hallway.
According to Arsoy, tour guides will not be allowed to accompany visitors through the corridors, and earphones will be used instead.
“Our priority there is prayer, ” Arsoy said, noting that the building is a world cultural heritage site and should therefore remain open to all visitors around the world.
Zuleiha Duman, 29, who returned to Istanbul from Germany to see Hagia Sophia after it was converted into a mosque, said she found it taking away.
Welcoming the new rules, she said: “As long as the entrance fee isn ’ t too high, I think it ’ s acceptable. ”
“Why shouldn ’ t Turkey and the government take advantage of this place?
These funds can be channeled to preserve more religious places. ”
Hagia Sophia has been on the UNESCO World Heritage List as part of Istanbul ’ s history since 1985.
Built by Emperor Justinian, Hagia Sophia was the largest place of worship in Christianity for nearly a thousand years, it was the main church during the Byzantine Empire, and from the seventh century, the emperor was crowned inside.
After the Ottomans entered Constantinople (now Istanbul) in 1453, the Hagia Sophia was converted into a mosque.
On the orders of the founder of the Turkish Republic Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the building was converted into a museum in 1934 until the summer of 2020.
Hagia Sophia is as symbolically important to Orthodox Christians around the world as St. Peter ’ s Basilica is to Catholics.
After the building was converted into a mosque, criticism poured in from the Greek Orthodox Church.
The UNESCO Foundation also criticized the decision without consultation.
For Erdogan, turning the place into a mosque was his “childhood dream, ” as he himself said, and pleasing to religious voters.
A few external changes were made at the time, for example, a green carpet was placed above the marble floor.
It seems clear that all these things did not detract from the popularity of this teacher.
According to official statistics, some 13.6 million people visited the Hagia Sophia landmark in 2022, not all of them from Europe.
The number of visitors from Indonesia in particular has risen, Hagia Sophia Imam Binyamin Topoglu told Turkey ’ s Anadolu news agency in 2023.
The amount of the fees has not yet been determined.
Tourism Minister Ersoy says the proceeds will be spent on cultural assets, for excavation or preservation of monuments such as the Hagia Sophia.
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Who was angered by the reconversion of Hagia Sophia in July 2020?

The primary criticism concerns the religious sensitivities tied to the Hagia Sophia's layered history as a Byzantine cathedral and Ottoman mosque.

How did the role of Hagia Sophia change following the Ottoman conquest?

Hagia Sophia became a central Islamic religious site for centuries

Critics argue that the move privileges Islamic heritage over its Christian past, as many iconic Orthodox mosaics and figures are now concealed or altered to comply with Islamic traditions forbidding depictions of human forms in places of worship.

Title:

Content: After Hagia Sophia, Turkey converts a second ancient Byzantine church into a mosque

Hundreds of worshippers filled the narrow streets of Istanbul's Fatih district on Friday to hear the sounds of Friday prayers ringing out from the newly inaugurated Kariye Mosque.

Once known as the Chora Church, the site spent the last 79 years as a museum. But it is now the latest structure to be converted back into a mosque by the government of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, following the conversion of Hagia Sophia in 2020. While viewed as a triumph by many Turkish Muslims, the Greek Orthodox Church has decried it as an "ill-advised decision" that "makes a mockery of the Turkish government's commitment to religious tolerance and religious freedom."

Chora's conversion was announced shortly after Hagia Sophia's, but its opening for prayer was delayed by years of restoration work.

The showing for the first Friday prayers at Kariye was relatively quiet compared to Hagia Sophia, which drew hundreds of thousands who filled the streets with prayer rugs for blocks and blocks away from the building. By contrast, the crowd on Friday was relatively average for a mosque in one of Istanbul's more religiously conservative neighborhoods, where Friday worshippers frequently spill out onto the streets.

Both the Chora Church and Hagia Sophia are 4th-century Byzantine constructions. They spent nearly a millennium as Christian holy sites before being converted to mosques by the Ottomans after their conquest of Constantinople in the 15th century. Despite their conversions, they remained revered by Orthodox Christians. After the founding of a secular Turkish Republic in the early 20th century, the decision was made for both to be neither mosque nor church but simply museums.

"Both Hagia Sophia and Chora embodied Byzantine and Ottoman pasts, and they became symbols of co-existence and multi-faith living practices. Their conversion fundamentally implies a hierarchy, prioritizing the Islamic past over all other layers, Greek Orthodox, Armenian, Jewish, Syriac, et al," Dr. Özgür Kaymak, a lecturer and researcher on minority rights at Istanbul's MEF University, told Religion News Service in an email.

Rededicating the sites as mosques is more than just a status change. According to Islamic tradition, artwork of human figures are forbidden in places of prayer, while in Orthodox Churches, icons of Christ, saints and other biblical figures are a defining feature.

In Hagia Sophia, the mosaics of Jesus and Mary have been covered with curtains since the conversion. While Erdoğan promised Hagia Sophia would remain fully accessible and free to all visitors, Turkey reneged on that earlier this year, reimposing an entrance fee on tourists and relegating them to the upper level, while the main floor is exclusive to Muslim worshippers.

Observers have also criticized the Turkish Directorate of Religion's caretaking of the site, noting damage that did not exist when it was under the purview of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism.

Though Chora is significantly smaller than Hagia Sophia, it is home to some of the best-preserved examples of late-Byzantine art, including mosaics, icons and frescoes, and is considered a UNESCO World Heritage site.

"For us it's a very important place because it remembers our culture and our traditions here," Father Evangelos Markantonis, an Orthodox priest who was leading a group of theology students to Chora on Friday, told Religion News Service.

"Though we cannot venerate as Orthodox Christians, we have to try to find things we can be united on. Only with dialogue and good deeds can we continue our lives," Markantonis, who is also a professor at the University of Athens, said when asked about the controversy.

Erdoğan had long refused calls from his right to convert churches like Hagia Sophia and Chora, telling supporters in 2018 to fill the nearby Sultan Ahmet Mosque (also known in English as the Blue Mosque) before they talked about needing to pray in Hagia Sophia.

Nonetheless, he made an about-turn in 2020.

"My dear nation, the conquest of Istanbul and the conversion of the Hagia Sophia into a Mosque are among the most glorious chapters in Turkish history," Erdoğan said at the time in a speech inaugurating the Hagia Sophia as a mosque.

"This is the most honorable day that Islam has been looking forward to, Greek Constantinople has become Turkish Istanbul," he added, quoting the Turkish poet Nazim Hikmet.

"The resurrection of Hagia Sophia heralds the liberation of the al-Aqsa Mosque. The resurrection of Hagia Sophia is the footsteps of the will of Muslims across the world to come out of the interregnum," Erdoğan said in his concluding remarks.

Chora's opening as the Kariye Mosque comes just weeks after Erdoğan's Justice and Development Party (AKP) suffered its largest electoral defeat in two decades during Turkey's nationwide municipal elections.

"The recent conversion of Chora into a mosque may be due to Erdoğan's many problems, including his geopolitical power politics, his appeal to religio-nationalism to revive his electoral popularity after the March elections or his tactic to divert attention from Turkey's economic downturn," Kaymak said.

Many analysts have attributed the loss to AKP bleeding votes to the more Islamist-leaning New Welfare Party, which has pressured Erdogan over his response to the Israel-Hamas war and humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip.

Muslim worshippers at the mosque on Friday said they viewed its rededication as an Islamic site to be a national win for Turkey.

"This mosque is one of the symbols of the Conquest. We are proud and happy. There are very beautiful frescoes inside. They were also nicely renovated before they were closed. May it be good for our country and our nation," a bystander, Ahmet Öteyüzoğlu, told Turkish media.

"Thank God for these days. Not everyone has the opportunity in their lifetime," another bystander named Mehmet Çelik told the Turkish news service Anadolu Agency, in reference to having been able to pray at both the rededicated Hagia Sophia and Kariye Mosques.

However, Greece, the U.S. State Department and Orthodox Christian institutions worldwide have all criticized the decision to revert the structure into a mosque.

"I want to publicly express my intense dissatisfaction, interpreting the feelings of all Greek women and men, for the completely unnecessary conversion of a historic Byzantine temple, the Monastery of Chora, into a mosque. It is, I believe, an action that offends the rich history of Istanbul itself as a crossroads of cultures," Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said shortly before leaving for Turkey for a planned meeting with Erdogan.

"We encourage the Turkish government to preserve and ensure access to sites and buildings that have hosted different religious communities in a way that respects their diverse histories," a State Department spokesperson said in response to questions from Greek media.

"The Turkish government's appropriation of both as the property of one faith group not only constitutes yet another sign of that government's contempt for Turkey's rich Orthodox Christian heritage but further imperils the religious freedom of the Ecumenical Patriarchate and the remaining Christians of that land," the Archons of the Ecumenical Patriarchate said in a statement.

© Religion News Service

How did Muslims and Orthodox Christians react to the reconversion?

How did the role of Hagia Sophia change following the Ottoman conquest?

Hagia Sophia became a central Islamic religious site for centuries

What political motivations influenced Erdogan's decision to reconvert Hagia Sophia?

Erdogan's decision was influenced by Turkey's Islamic resurgence.

What was the original historical and cultural significance of Hagia Sophia in the Byzantine Empire?

Who was angered by the reconversion of Hagia Sophia in July 2020?

This has upset Orthodox Christian communities and leaders, particularly in Greece, who see the decision as undermining religious tolerance and threatening the shared cultural and religious legacy of the Orthodox world.

How did Muslims and Orthodox Christians react to the reconversion?

Who was angered by the reconversion of Hagia Sophia in July 2020?

On a political level, Erdogan’s move is widely viewed as motivated by domestic political calculations.

Title:

Content: >
December 9, 2021

Christian leaders look forward to Turkey's new law on religious foundations

This is an issue of vital importance for local Christian communities whose places of worship are entrusted to and managed by their governing bodies

Religious minorities in Turkey are looking forward to the increasingly Islamo-nationalist government making good its promise of outreach to non-Muslims by giving them freedom to establish and run their religious and social institutions.

The Turkish government is preparing to issue a new regulation on the administrative management of foundations linked to non-Muslim faith communities, which have been paralyzed for years by a legislative impasse that blocks the renewal of their governing bodies.

This is an issue of vital importance for local Christian communities such as Armenians and Assyrians, whose places of worship – many of them historic --, other real estate and public institutions are entrusted to and managed by foundations.

Burhan Ersoy, head of the state-run Directorate of the Foundations, has confirmed that the plan for the drafting of a new regulation concerning the elections for the assignment of offices within the foundations has come into being, Fides reported.

The draft of the text has been drawn up, taking into account requests and proposals from the various minority communities, and it is expected that the new rules, after obtaining government approval, would be implemented by April 2022.

The previous electoral regulation for the top management of foundations had been suspended in 2013, after the government chose to establish new procedures to make the management of real estate more functional and transparent.

This led to some confusion with representatives of the various minority communities unable to come to a consensus to either accept or reject the new electoral rules, Ersoy said.

The Syrian Orthodox Christian Süleyman Can Ustabaşı, current representative of the non-Muslim Foundations within the Assembly of Foundations, has said that the structure of foundations and their membership profiles had changed over time.

The Turkish government already had consultations with the representatives of religious minorities to resolve the dispute over board elections for their foundations.

But Ustabaşı now urges Turkish authorities to carry out another consultation with representatives of minority communities before the new text is to be implemented in 2022.

The legal status of the Foundations is still based on the Peace Treaty of Lausanne, signed in 1923 by Turkey and the Entente powers (British Empire, France and Russian Empire) victorious from the First World War.

The treaty guaranteed equality before the laws and the freedom to promote and manage "religious and social institutions" for non-Muslim communities in Turkey.

However, the state had seized properties run by these foundations and had to contend with litigation as these foundations claimed the rights guaranteed by the Treaty of Lausanne.

Also, starting from 1936, legislative provisions had allowed foundations of non-Muslim communities to acquire new properties. But in 1974, this guarantee was canceled and the state begun seizing assets acquired by these foundations.

Between 2013 and 2018 about 1,084 properties were returned to the foundations linked to non-Muslim communities, and 20 places of worship restored and given back to the foundations, according to official data.

Greek Orthodox Laki Vingas, in a speech published by the Armenian-Turkish newspaper Agos, said that the legislative deadlock on the question of the regulation of the foundations has had a negative effect on the life of the different ecclesial communities.

The block in the processes of renewal of the governing bodies of foundations had led to the expulsion of young people from the institutions linked to their communities, and also that many voluntary activities were "unfortunately interrupted".

Non-Muslim places of worship

Within the general Assembly of the Turkish Foundations are some 167 minority foundations. The Turkish Greek community has 77, the highest number of foundations. The Armenian community has 54 and the Jewish community has 19 foundations.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan after a cabinet meeting held on October 25 announced that authorities had put on the agenda the question of the elections of the directorates of the foundations linked to religious minorities.

He also spoke of fundamental tools for the management of assets and resources destined for non-Muslim places of worship.

The issue of the foundations come at a time when Turkish authorities have expelled more and more Protestant Christians -- foreigners and Turkish converts-- on grounds they constitute a "threat to national security".

Turkey had also recently transformed museums into mosques, such as the Hagia Sophia and the Church of the Holy Saviour in Chora.

Both churches had been turned into museums after the end of the Ottoman Empire and the establishment of modern Turkey.

The Church of the Holy Saviour in Chora was built by the Byzantines in the 5th century. The Ottomans then turned it into a mosque after they captured Constantinople in 1453. And it remained a Muslim worship space until the end of the Second World War when it was transformed into a museum.

The same happened to the Hagia Sophia Museum in Iznik, and the high-profile reconversion of the Hagia Sophia Museum, Istanbul's most identifiable monument.

Many observers believe that President Erdogan, weakened internally by a bad economy and a lack of political perspective, is compensating with erasing part of the country's multiculturalism, aimed at shoring up the ranks of his Islamo-nationalist base.

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What political motivations influenced Erdogan's decision to reconvert Hagia Sophia?

The decision aimed to rally anti-Kemalist voters.

Analysts suggest it serves to consolidate support among Turkey’s conservative and Islamist constituencies by symbolizing a broader Islamic revival and national pride.

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Content: Earthquakes and rampant inflation: Why did Erdogan win again?
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Source: Hong Kong 01
Author: Liu Yanting
On May 28, Turkey held the second round of the presidential election.
Although Turkey's Supreme Electoral Council is not expected to announce the official results until June 1, according to preliminary election statistics, with 99.59% of the votes cast, the incumbent President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has 51.91% of the votes, defeating his opponent Kemal Kılçdaroğlu with 48.09% of the votes. Determine the rate of re-election.
This election has caused global concern.
First, people are curious about whether there will be a regime change in Turkey, changing its fierce cross-border diplomatic style.
Looking back over the past two years, since the outbreak of the Russian-Ukrainian war in 2022, Turkey has repeatedly played a fierce swing beyond the size of medium-sized countries, including facilitating the Russian-Ukrainian foreign ministers' talks in March 2022, blocking Finland and Sweden's accession to NATO in May, and announcing the "green light" in June, leading Russia to sign the Black Sea Food Agreement in July, and negotiating energy cooperation with Russia at the CICA summit in October. For the first time since the start of the war, senior officials have talked about launching a new round of military action in Syria, implying that it may threaten Russia ’ s and Iran ’ s geopolitical interests.
In between, the outside world is surprised by Erdoğan ’ s active actions, and also uncertain about Turkey ’ s opportunistic diplomatic style.
Second, Erdogan suffered two major shocks before the election, causing the outside world to generally not optimistic about his re-election, one is in 2022 for months to break through 80% of the serious inflation, the second is the earthquake disaster.
Among them, Turkey ’ s high inflation is the sequela of the 2018 economic crisis. The deep reason is that Turkey ’ s long-term economic overheating and political interest rate cuts have caused a linked financial storm after the Federal Reserve raised interest rates in Turkey. He lost power in big cities such as Istanbul and Ankara.
And the earthquake will also affect voters' support for Erdogan.
On February 6, 2023, a 7.8-magnitude earthquake occurred in southeastern Turkey, killing nearly 50,000 people, and economic losses are even more incalculable.
After the disaster Erdoğan once faced criticism, public opinion criticized its failure to improve the phenomenon of uneven development and urban poverty, resulting in old buildings with low earthquake resistance being vulnerable to a strong earthquake, and fragile buildings are often difficult to get away from the collusion of officials and businessmen, cutting corners, the ruling Erdoğan and the positive development party are to blame.
However, from the results of this election, although the gap between the two people is less than 5%, but Krechidaloğlu is finally a step away from the door, showing that whether it is high inflation or an earthquake, can not prevent Erdogan from being re-elected.
In addition to the lack of integration of Turkish opposition forces, Erdogan ’ s success in mobilizing the new situation of “Turkey ’ s rise ” is also key.
The opposition is not well integrated.
First of all, although the polls of the Republican People's Party (CHP) party leader Krechidar Oulu once exceeded Erdoğan ’ s, making many foreign media boldly predict that Turkey will soon change, but focusing on the current state of Turkish politics, Erdoğan ’ s positive party is the strongest force, and the opposition ’ s long-term mountainous and independent government has not only offset the integration efforts to challenge Erdoğan, but also to some extent.
Looking at the interaction of Turkish opposition parties in recent years, there have been obvious signs of integration until the 2017 constitutional referendum.
At that time, Erdoğan greatly expanded the presidential power and removed the obstacles to re-election in the system, causing a collective panic among the opposition forces. The four major opposition parties, the Republican People's Party (İYü), the Good Party (İYü), the Happiness Party (SP) and the Democratic Party (DP), jointly formed the "State Union" (Millet İttifakı), advocating the restoration of the parliamentary system and abolition of the executive presidential system, hoping to curb the positive party and Erdoğan. Together with the Democratic and Progressive Party (DEVA), they formed the "Six Party Round Table" (Altılı Masa), which is seeking to jointly launch a presidential candidate representing the opposition forces and compete with Erdogan in 2023.
After all, Erdogan was the president at the time, with political resources such as the media and the judiciary, enough to crack down on various opposition forces, such as Ekrem İmamoğlu, the mayor of Istanbul from the Republican People ’ s Party, who was originally highly polled and regarded as a star of tomorrow enough to end Erdoğan ’ s 20 years in power, was sentenced to more than two years in prison in December 2022 for “suspected insult to the Supreme Electoral Council. ” He lost the right to run for president.
After Imam Oulu was forced out, the "six-party round table" did not immediately integrate new candidates, but entangled in ideological scuffles, political spoils distribution, until March 2023, it was determined to nominate CHP party leader Krechidar Oulu, but this nomination was initially not supported by the good party, the latter also threatened to withdraw from the "six-party round table".
After many days of consultations and political exchanges, Krechdarolu agreed to have Ankara Mayor Mansur Yavaş and Imam Oulu as vice presidents, and the good party agreed to stay at the "six-party round table" and support the nomination of Krechdarolu for election.
In fact, from the point of view of the composition of the structure, the only ideology that can unite the "six-party round table" is against Erdogan.
Because the Republican People's Party with the most seats is the centre-left pro-European secularism party, the Happiness Party is a Eurosceptic conservative party with Islamism, the Democratic Party is a centre-right nationalist party, the Democratic and Progressive Party is a centre-right pro-European party, the Future Party is a right-wing pro-European party, and the Good Party is a centre-right nationalist party.
In short, the parties have a combination of ideologies that straddle Islamism and secularism, and basically if Erdoğan and the AKP had not been in power for too long, the parties would have no incentive to integrate.
However, even if it is reluctantly integrated, the "six-party round table" is still divided, otherwise it will not be until two months before the election to determine the nomination of candidates; and after the confirmation of the presidential candidate, the "six-party round table" broke out in a new civil war on the list of parliamentary candidates, all parties want to strive for more security seats distribution, resulting in the continued difficulty of the list.
All these things are quite chilling in the eyes of Turkish voters: Erdoğan may have a monopoly on power and love the position of power, but the opposition forces are also only interested in the division of territory and political division of spoils, and have no intention of changing Turkey's development predicament.
Under the balance of the two, or some voters who are tired of Erdoğan, after going through a thousand turns of heart, they chose to continue to vote for the positive party and Erdoğan, instead of supporting the opposition forces whose governing ability is unknown and whose positions are mixed, resulting in the eventual defeat of Krechdar Olu by a small margin.
How Erdoğan mobilised the "rise of Turkey"
In addition to the weak integration of opposition forces and the failure to gather enough political energy, Erdoğan and the Positive Development Party are still able to gather support and call for votes under the impact of high inflation and earthquake disasters, which is also the key to the defeat of Krechdar Olu.
According to the results of the poll, voters in large cities whose wealth has been severely eroded by high inflation supported Krechdarolu in the election, including the top three cities of Istanbul, Ankara, Izmir and Adana, the fifth largest city; however, Bursa, the sixth largest city of Gaziantep, and the seventh largest city of Konya. (Konya) is still supporting Erdoğan, and Gaziantep is still the hardest hit area of the 2023 earthquake, but voters still vote for the current president who has been denounced by public opinion, and it is clear that Erdoğan still has a certain degree of political energy.
Looking at this source of energy, it is obvious that it is not all the economic achievements that have been downhill.
Looking back at Erdoğan ’ s path to power, he experienced high economic growth in Turkey during his term of office, which can escort him to power.
From 2008 to 2013, developed markets such as the United States, Europe and Japan adopted a number of rounds of quantitative easing policies, international "hot money" poured into emerging markets including Turkey, stimulating the latter's economic growth. Erdogan took advantage of the momentum to promote easy credit, ask the central bank to continue to cut interest rates, and promote large-scale infrastructure projects. On the altar alone, no one can resist.
However, after the US Federal Reserve released a possible interest rate hike in 2013, foreign investment was greatly withdrawn, and emerging market currencies, including the lira, began to depreciate, and Turkey ’ s economic growth continued to slow down. And...
In the process of coping with the crisis, Erdoğan obviously wants to sacrifice prices and preserve economic growth, so he used extreme economic means and insisted on cutting interest rates in the face of high inflation.
The result, while maintaining economic growth to a certain extent, has led to a sharp depreciation of the lira, soaring prices, a near collapse of the bond market, and widespread protests in major cities such as Istanbul.
But looking at Erdoğan ’ s political actions in the past 10 years, it can be seen that he has begun to actively mobilize public support in the military, historical traditions, and diplomatic fields of major powers to fill the “Turkish rise ” narrative under the slowdown in economic growth and make up for his political loss.
As far as the diplomatic tradition after the Cold War is concerned, Turkey is an intermediate power anchored in the Western world and, with its strategic position across Eurasia, moves among different groups of countries.
However, after the outbreak of the Arab Spring in 2010, the outside world saw a more "eastern" and "military power" Turkey: on the Egyptian issue, its support for the Muslim Brotherhood, its involvement in the local political situation; on the battlefield of Syria and Libya, it has successively sent troops to intervene in the civil war there since 2016, and successfully achieved certain results. In the Gulf field, Turkey and Iran have maintained close interaction with Qatar, to a certain extent, prompting the 2017 Qatar severance storm, but because Turkey and Iran insisted on not retreating, the final storm ended with Saudi concessions in 2021, and Turkey successfully maintained its political achievements in the Gulf.
Of course, Turkey's foreign military operations are not all fruitful results.
Taking the Syrian battlefield as an example, Turkey launched four military operations against Syria: the Euphrates Shield from 2016 to 2017, the Olive Branch in 2018, the Peace Spring in 2019 and the Spring Shield in 2020.
Since the "olive branch" operation, the Turkish army has not only attacked the Kurdish forces, but also exchanged fire with the Syrian government forces supported by the Russian side, causing strong dissatisfaction in Moscow.
After many unsuccessful coordination, the Russian army was brazenly engaged with Turkey in 2020, resulting in the scribbled end of the "spring shield", and Turkey can only be forced to obey the Russian-led order in northern Syria.
However, under the propaganda of the Erdogan government, Turkey is not clearly aware that Turkey lost to Russia, but to see the Turkish army fighting in northern Syria in order to fight terrorism, which is very encouraging for nationalists and patriotic people.
In addition, in the historical tradition, Erdogan ’ s most classic action is to announce in July 2020 the abolition of the 1934 cabinet decree, the end of the 86 years of Hagia Sophia ’ s museum years, and the restoration of its mosque status.
Although this has caused many Western countries to criticize, but Erdoğan is not without the basis of public opinion, because in the 2015 capture of Junstenburg memorial ceremony, many Turks have held morning prayers in the museum square, in 2018, the Turkish Islamic Association is publicly applied to hold worship in the museum, although it was finally rejected, but has attracted a lot of public support.
Therefore, Erdogan's decision to "liberate St. Sophia" is aimed at the Islamic resurgence in Turkey in recent years, hoping to draw the support of anti-Kemalist voters.
And in the great power diplomatic field, Turkey's action is not to be said, in addition to the neighboring Central Asia and the Middle East, the Russian-Ukrainian war under various violent swings across Eurasia, are Erdogan's excellent election materials.
Taking the March 2022 Russian-Ukrainian Foreign Minister ’ s talks in Turkey and the landing of the Black Sea Food Agreement in July as an example, Turkish state media vigorously promoted Erdogan ’ s “peacemaker ” role; as for blocking Finland and Sweden from joining NATO, Turkish state media used Erdogan ’ s“ defense of national interests ”, “no fear of offending the West ” and“ combating Kurdish terrorism ”.
Of course, under the burden of economic decline and governance for many years, the narrative situation of mobilizing military, historical traditions and great power diplomacy can play a role in Erdoğan ’ s election, which can only be determined by the election results.
Judging from the results of 51.91% to 48.09%, although the above actions did not create a brilliant victory, they were enough to defeat the opposition forces and guarantee Erdogan another five-year term, which obviously still has some effect.
However, Turkey ’ s high economic growth has ended, and how to buffer Turkey ’ s economic storm and find new solutions outside of “Erdoğan ’ s economics ” are difficult issues that cannot be solved in the short term.
After the election, Erdoğan ’ s challenge continued.
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How did Muslims and Orthodox Christians react to the reconversion?

What kind of domestic reaction did Erdogan's reconversion of Hagia Sophia receive?

What political motivations influenced Erdogan's decision to reconvert Hagia Sophia?

Erdogan's decision was influenced by Turkey's Islamic resurgence.

This timing, especially following electoral challenges, indicates a use of the Hagia Sophia reconversion as a means of cultural-political mobilization, tapping into religio-nationalist sentiments while diverting attention from economic difficulties.

What kind of domestic reaction did Erdogan's reconversion of Hagia Sophia receive?

The decision also drew criticism from international organizations and Western governments.

UNESCO condemned the change, emphasizing that it occurred without prior consultation and expressing concerns about preserving the site's universal cultural heritage.

What was UNESCO's main complaint about the reconversion?

Western countries worry that the reconversion restricts the inclusive spirit of the Hagia Sophia as a museum and impacts tourism.

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Content: On the 564 anniversary of the conquest of Constantinople by the Ottomans, the American Council for the Liberation of Hagia Sophia (CALHSC) called for the Hagia Sophia Museum to return to its original significance, that is, it should once again hear Christian prayers and Christian services.
Such a statement, reports the Austrian Catholic news agency KATHPRESS, was made by the president of CALHSC, an American politician of Greek origin Chris Spirou.
According to the agency, he has already appealed to the Turkish government with a proposal to start negotiations on this issue.
As a first step, it is proposed to allow regular liturgical services while maintaining the status of Hagia Sophia as a museum.
All Christians still perceive the cathedral as a shrine, Spira argues, so if the Turkish authorities raise the issue of returning it to the status of a cult place of worship, Ankara should hear the voices of Christians, not just Muslims.
In the event that the Turkish leadership does not go to negotiations, the “American Council for the Liberation of Hagia Sophia ” is going to file a lawsuit in the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg.
Erhan Elaldı – Anadolu Agency
The 564th anniversary of the conquest of Constantinople was celebrated by the Hagia Sophia as a museum.
What is the 565th anniversary?
This is not the first time Spirou has taken such an initiative.
His organization, registered in 2005, but not particularly famous, has already announced its intention to celebrate the liturgy in the cathedral museum.
The Turkish government then called the words of the American politician a provocation, and he himself was denied entry to the country.
But a lot of things are changing in the Middle East, Europe and the United States today.
Ankara is no longer the “best ally ” it used to be, and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is moving further and further away from the familiar image of the head of state for Western colleagues, with whom you can deal.
Washington even under the previous administration with a squeak, but went on to recognize the importance of protecting Christian minorities in the Middle East, and the current Trump administration puts this at the forefront.
Cracks went on the sarcophagus, which until now protected the secular museum of Hagia Sophia from degeneration into a religious object.
And not at all in the church, in the mosque, which Hagia Sophia became after the conquest by the Ottomans of the capital of the Orthodox Byzantine Empire in May 1453.
The intensification of this process is associated today with the rebirth of Erdogan himself, although it is difficult to be completely sure that there is no political conjuncture here, which, as you know, is changeable.
Alexxx1979
View of St. Sophia Cathedral
Recall that in early April this year, a number of Turkish newspapers reported that the President was going on Friday, April 14, together with the leadership of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) and religious leaders of Istanbul to visit the Hagia Sophia Museum to pray in it as Muslims.
The timing of Muslim prayer in the former church was not accidental.
On April 14 this year was Holy Friday, which is dedicated to the memory of the condemnation to death, the suffering of the cross and the death of Jesus Christ, as well as the removal of His body from the cross and burial.
Considering also that Easter is now the Orthodox and Catholics coincided, the message was sent powerful and significant.
All this seemed to be a continuation of playing the religious card on the eve of the referendum on April 16, which decided whether Turkey should be a parliamentary or presidential republic.
On April 18, it became clear that Erdogan had won.
But I lost at the same time.
In September 2015, during the parliamentary elections, the ruling party received 51% of the vote, and the nationalist Nationalist Action Party received about 20%.
When the AKP merged with the nationalists in the course of lobbying for constitutional amendments, it expected that the addition of 50% and 20% would give 70% or more in the referendum.
Only 51% of Turks supported the union of the two parties.
In this regard, many Turkish experts, analyzing the current situation, pointed out that the Justice and Development Party, having entered into an alliance with the Nationalist Action Party, made a strategic mistake, creating not only the impression of a synthesis of “soft Islamism ” with nationalists, but also began to cultivate a hybrid ideology of neo-Ottomanism, which was not supported by almost half of the citizens of Turkey..
However, there is another thing – the conservative and religious inner Anatolia, whose votes went to Erdogan, began to realize that from now on she has the right to present her demands to him.
This directly affects Saint Sophia.
An observer for the Turkish newspaper Hurriyet Daily News points out in this regard that on the eve of the 564 anniversary of the conquest of Constantinople, the space around the Hagia Sophia Museum is again filled, but not by tourists, but by members of the Anatolian Youth Association (AGD), whose motto is the words of the late Islamist politician, former Prime Minister of Turkey Necmettin Erbakan: “Life is faith and jihad ”.
These passionately believing people are actively opposed to everything that testifies to the presence of the non-Muslim faith in Turkish society.
And not just Santa Claus for the New Year.
For the past three years, they have focused on making Hagia Sophia “free from shackles ” and converted into a mosque.
Erdogan is slow.
However, the impatient members of the AGD are even more demanding for action this year.
After the referendum, Turkish politics entered a difficult phase of implementing the new constitution, and after May 29, the question arises whether these loud signals from Anatolia will now be ignored.
The Turkish president himself, during a speech in the ancient capital during the celebration of the conquest of Constantinople, according to the government news agency Anadolu, emphasized that “Istanbul, which since its foundation has been the capital of different states and cultures, has become a center of peaceful coexistence and tolerance during the just rule of Sultan Mehmed Fatih [also known as Mehmed the Conqueror]. ”
This part of Erdogan ’ s rhetoric looks tolerant.
But what will follow?
If suddenly the Turkish president decided to allow the Hagia Sophia Museum to serve the liturgy, then this, at least, made us think about the prospects of a possible return of Turkey to the path of improving relations with the Christian world, in particular with the European Union, which Erdogan has repeatedly sarcastic called “the Christian club ”.
However, this will require from the president not only personal courage, but also reliance on new political and social forces, the search for new allies in the country and abroad.
The problem is that even in Turkey itself, an opinion is beginning to take shape that Erdogan is becoming a hostage of internal Anatolia.
This means that the Hagia Sophia Museum, under pressure from this part of the country and society, would rather become a mosque than a church.

What was the significance of Hagia Sophia's conversion into a museum in 1934?

made Hagia Sophia a major tourist attraction.

Changes to visitor management, including reinstating entrance fees and separating worshippers from tourists, have sparked concerns about reduced tourist access and the site's evolving role as a shared historic monument.