The Armenian Patriarch of Constantinople Sahak Mashalian has endorsed the idea of restoring Hagia Sophia’s status as a place of worship, a controversial debate in Turkey brought to the country’s agenda after the ruling party voiced will to turn the museum into a mosque, The Hurriyet Daily news reports.

“Hagia Sophia was built with the labor of 10,000 workers. It has gone through numerous renovations and all those efforts were meant to keep it as a worship place but not to serve as a museum,” Mashalian, the 85th Patriarch of Turkey’s Armenians, wrote on Twitter.

“I believe that believers’ praying suits better the spirit of the temple instead of curious tourists running around to take pictures,” he said, calling for the opening of Hagia Sophia to prayer. “Hagia Sophia is large enough to allocate a space for Christians. Let it become the peace symbol of this era and humanity,” the patriarch wrote.

To note, Turkey’s Council of State examines the request for annulment of a cabinet decree of 1934 that turned the Hagia Sophia from a mosque into a museum. The court will make its ruling on the Hagia Sophia’s status on July 2 on whether the site can be converted into a mosque.

The Hagia Sofia was completed in 537 C.E. and served as the seat of the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople until 1453 when the Ottomans captured the city and turned the Hagia Sofia into a mosque. It was turned into a museum in 1935.