The first prayers in Turkey's Hagia Sophia will be held on July 24, President Tayyip Erdogan said on Friday after declaring the ancient monument was once again a mosque following a court ruling revoking its status as a museum.

Erdogan said the nearly 1,500-year-old Hagia Sophia would remain open to Muslims, Christians and foreigners, but added that Turkey had exercised its sovereign right in converting it to a mosque and would interpret criticism of the move as an attack on its independence.

Erdogan declared Istanbul's Hagia Sophia open to Muslim prayer as a mosque on Friday after a top court ruled that the ancient building's conversion to a museum by modern Turkey's founding statesman was illegal.

The Turkish president made his announcement just an hour after the court ruling was published, brushing aside international warnings not to change the status of the nearly 1,500-year-old monument that is revered by Christians and Muslims alike.

Erdogan welcomed in his announcement "all of the ideas in the international community about this issue," However, he said the decision "is about the sovereign rights of Turkey."

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