Two Greeks remanded after flag incident inside Hagia Sophia

[EPA]

Two Greek tourists – a antheral and a woman – person been arrested successful Istanbul aft allegedly unfurling a Greek emblem wrong Hagia Sophia and signaling the enactment connected video, according to Turkish media reports.

The plain transverse Greek emblem bore a double-headed Byzantine eagle and the inscription “Orthodoxy oregon death,” Turkish outlets said.

The incidental is said to person taken spot connected April 9 wrong the historical monument, which was primitively built successful 537 by Byzantine Emperor Justinian. Following the Ottoman conquest of Constantinople successful 1453, the gathering was converted into a mosque. It was aboriginal designated a depository successful 1934 under Ataturk, the laminitis of the modern Turkish Republic, earlier being reconverted into a mosque successful 2020.

Security camera footage released to Turkish media shows the mates wrong the building, with officials attempting to intervene and stop the show of the flag.

Turkish authorities launched an probe soon aft the incidental and detained the two individuals astatine a edifice where they were staying, according to reports.

Following their apprehension and the issuance of an apprehension warrant, the brace were brought earlier the courts and remanded connected charges of “insulting a conception of the public,” Turkish media said.