Pope begins Turkey visit with 'brotherhood' plea
Pope Benedict XVI began his first visit to a Muslim country today with a message of dialogue and “brotherhood” between faiths and Turkey’s chief Islamic cleric said at a joint appearance that growing “Islamophobia” hurts all Muslims.
Benedict also said guarantees of religious freedom are essential for a just society.
His comments could be reinforced later during the four-day visit to Turkey when the pope meets in Istanbul with Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I, the spiritual leader of the world’s Orthodox Christians.
The pope is expected to call for greater rights and protections for Christian minorities in the Muslim world, including for Turkey’s tiny Greek Orthodox community.
Benedict’s journey is extraordinarily sensitive, a closely watched pilgrimage full of symbolism that could offer hope of religious reconciliation or deepen what many say is a growing divide between the Christian and Islamic worlds.
Seeking to ease anger over his perceived criticism of Islam, Benedict met with Ali Bardakoglu, chief of Turkey’s Religious Affairs Directories.
“The so-called conviction that the sword is used to expand Islam in the world and growing Islamophobia hurts all Muslims,” Bardakoglu said at a joint appearance.
The comment appeared to be a reference to Benedict’s remarks in a speech in September when he quoted a 14th century Christian emperor who characterised the Prophet Mohammed’s teachings as “evil and inhuman”.
The remarks triggered a wave of anger in the Islamic world; on Sunday, more than 25,000 Turks showed up to an anti-Vatican protest in Istanbul, asking the pope to stay at home.
“Peace is the basis of all religions,” Benedict told Bardakoglu.
The Vatican said the speech was an attempt to highlight the incompatibility of faith and violence, and Benedict later expressed regret for the violent Muslim backlash.
“All feel the same responsibility in ths difficult moment in history, let’s work together,” Benedict said during his flight from Rome to Ankara, where more than 3,000 police and armed officers joined a security effort that surpassed even the visit of President George Bush two years ago.
“We know that the scope of this trip is dialogue and brotherhood and the commitment for understanding between cultures … and for reconciliation,” he said.
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan welcomed the pope as he left the plane and described the visit as “very meaningful.” Erdogan’s political party has Islamic roots, though the government is secular.
In his first official act, Benedict visited the mausoleum of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the founder of modern Turkey, and wrote a message in a guest book calling Turkey “a meeting point of different religions and cultures and a bridge between Asia and Europe.”
Police monitored the road leading to Ankara from the airport, where Turkish and Vatican flags waved in a light breeze.
Snipers climbed to the top of buildings and hilltops and in wooded areas along the route soldiers in camouflage fatigues set up observation points and sniffer dogs passed along bridges.
It is Benedict’s first visit to a Muslim country as pontiff.
The original goal of the pope’s trip to Turkey was to meet Bartholomew I, leader of the world’s 300 million Orthodox Christians.
The two major branches of Christianity represented by Bartholomew and Benedict split in 1054 over differences in opinion on the power of the papacy, and the two spiritual heads will meet in an attempt to breach the divide and reunite the churches.
The pope leaves Ankara tomorrow for Ephesus, where the Virgin Mary is thought to have spent her last years, and will then travel to Istanbul.
A closely watched moment of the trip will come on Thursday during Benedict’s visit to Haghia Sophia, a 1,500-year-old site that was originally a Byzantine church and then turned into a mosque after the Muslim conquest of Istanbul - then known as Constantinople – in 1453. It is now a museum, and Turks would take offence at any religious gestures by the pontiff, who also plans to visit the nearby Blue Mosque.
In 1967, Pope Paul VI fell to his knees in prayer, touching off protests by Turks claiming he violated the secular nature of the domed complex. In 1979, Pope John Paul II made no overt religious signs during his visit.
Yesterday, a group of 100 pro-Islamic demonstrators displayed a petition demanding that the Haghia Sophia be declared a mosque and opened to worship for Muslims.
