U.S. Senate candidate proposed sanctions against Turkey to return Hagia Sophia Cathedral to the Orthodox Church

Mark Lynch, a candidate for the U.S. Senate from South Carolina, has come out with a radical initiative aimed at returning the Hagia Sophia Cathedral in Istanbul to the jurisdiction of the Orthodox Church. The politician called the current status of the object «one of the greatest injustices in Christian history» and proposed to use tools of economic pressure on Turkey to correct the situation. He wrote about this in his account on social network X.

As part of his campaign, Lynch presented a bill called «Law on the return of Hagia Sophia to the Church». The document envisions a strict trade embargo and a complete ban on U.S. imports from Turkey, which amounted to about $17.5 billion in 2025. According to the initiative, the sanctions should remain in force until the ownership of the historic shrine is transferred to the Greek Orthodox Church.

The politician also sharply criticized his opponent, incumbent Senator Lindsey Graham, accusing him of inaction in 2020. That’s when Turkish authorities changed the status of the cathedral-museum to a functioning mosque, which Lynch characterized as «an act of cultural theft.» According to the candidate, Graham did not use the influence of the United States to stop the process.

In the near future, Mark Lynch intends to gather leaders of Orthodox, Catholic and Protestant communities in the Capitol to join forces in support of the bill. He emphasized that this initiative is part of a larger struggle against the seizure of Christian cultural heritage sites around the world.