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TURKEY-ARRIVE Nov-28-2006 (800 words) With photos. xxxi
Pope arrives in Turkey, hopes to improve ties with Orthodox, Muslims
By John Thavis and Cindy Wooden
Catholic News Service
ANKARA, Turkey (CNS) -- Pope Benedict XVI arrived in Turkey at the start of a challenging four-day pilgrimage aimed at improving ties with Orthodox Christians and Muslims.
The pope's chartered Alitalia jet landed Nov. 28 in the capital, Ankara, and the pontiff was quickly escorted to a VIP airport lounge for a meeting with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Before departing from Rome, the pope told reporters on his plane that he considered the trip pastoral, not political. He said he hoped it would underline the value of dialogue in "this difficult moment in history."
"The aim of this trip is dialogue, fraternity and the commitment to understanding between cultures, for an encounter of cultures and religions, for reconciliation," he said.
The pope said he wanted in particular to promote dialogue between Christianity and Islam, and "with our Christian brothers and sisters, especially the Orthodox Church of Constantinople."
The pope landed in Ankara on a crisp but sunny day. Dressed in a long white coat, he walked briskly down the steps of the plane to a red carpet on the tarmac, where Erdogan was waiting for him.
The pope smiled and chatted with the prime minister and the two moved inside for private talks lasting about 20 minutes. They posed for photographs, seated next to Vatican and Turkish flags.
The meeting with Erdogan was a last-minute addition to the papal program, and it took place just before the prime minister left the country for a NATO summit. Earlier, in what had been widely viewed as a snub, Erdogan had said there was no time to meet the pope.
After their encounter, Erdogan told Turkish reporters that he had asked the pope for support of Turkey's request for membership in the European Union. Erdogan said the pope responded positively.
"He said 'We are not politicians but we also hope Turkey enters the EU,'" Erdogan said.
A senior Vatican official did not confirm that remark, but said the Vatican looks with favor upon Turkey's efforts to meet the criteria of EU membership.
As a cardinal, the pope said in 2004 that in a cultural sense, Turkey had always represented "another continent, in permanent contrast with Europe." More recently, however, the Vatican has said it is not opposed to Turkey's EU membership.
On his way into the capital for meetings with political, religious and diplomatic officials, the pope stopped to pay his respects at the mausoleum of Kemal Ataturk, the founder of modern Turkey.
The pope accompanied a wreath of flowers to the tomb and spent a minute in silence before Ataturk's marble memorial.
Then the pontiff walked to an adjacent museum and, after putting on his glasses, wrote a short message in English in a golden guest book: "In this land, a meeting point of different religions and cultures and a bridge between Asia and Europe, I gladly make my own the words of the founder of the Turkish republic: 'Peace at home, peace in the world!'"
Ataturk led Turkey's war of independence and was the architect of the constitution that in 1923 transformed Turkey into a Western-style secular state. It was Ataturk who moved the capital to Ankara from Istanbul, formerly Constantinople, the ancient capital of the Byzantine Empire.
He rejected the model of a Muslim religious state, even though 99 percent of Turkey's population is Muslim. Today, however, Christian minority communities complain of de facto discrimination in areas of legal status, property and schools.
The pope rode in a closed car through Ankara; he was not expected to use the glass-walled popemobile in Turkey. There were no crowds of well-wishers at the airport or along the papal motorcade route in Ankara, a city with a miniscule Christian population.
Security was tight in the capital. Thousands of heavily armed policemen lined the streets, and snipers watched from the roofs of buildings. Ankara newspapers said the government had swept for explosives along the pope's route.
The pope's official welcome took place at the presidential palace, where the pontiff was greeted by President Ahmet Necdet Sezer. The president met the pope as he got out of the car. The two men shook hands, posed for photos and immediately went in for private talks.
The pope was to meet later with Ali Bardakoglu, the head of Turkey's directorate of religious affairs and the country's highest Muslim authority. Bardakoglu sharply criticized the pope's remarks on Islam in September and said the pontiff should apologize; he later accepted the pope's expression of regret.
In that speech, at the University of Regensburg in Germany, the pope cited a historical criticism of Islam and spoke about the concept of holy war. The pope later distanced himself from the quoted material and said he was sorry Muslims had been offended.
END
Copyright (c) 2006 Catholic News Service/USCCB. All rights reserved.
This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed.
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