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Pope Francis, the religious leader of the world's Catholics arrived in Ankara on Friday and condemned the extremist Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) militants cruelty with no respect to basic human rights against Christians and other religious minorities in the Middle East and called for interfaith solidarity against all kinds of fundamentalism.
Pope's three-day visit to predominantly Muslim Turkey and his meetings with Turkish officials, came at a time that many Christians and other minorities are being targeted by ISIL in Iraq and Syria.
In a joint press conference with President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in the new lavish presidential palace in Ankara, pope said a sound peace can only be built on the respect for fundemantal rights, through translated remarks.
Pope condemned all the ways of using religion as a mean to reach certain goals, fanaticism and fundemantalism, as well as irrational fears which foster misunderstanding and discrimination. He said, such things can be countered only by the solidarity of all believers.
Pope Francis, called for greater dialogue between Christians and Muslims to end fundamentalism. He pointed out the suffering in the Middle East with constant wars and said that military response is not enough to end the conflicts in the region.
Pope said, there is cruelty to the people taken hostage and cruelty against different ethnicities, with no respect to even basic human rights in Iraq and Syria.
Pope Francis also said that hundreds of thousands of people are fleeing from their territory to save their lives and beliefs, including Christians, Yazidis and others.
Praising Turkey for accepting refugees from the region with great generocity, pope also called the international community to do more for those refugees.
Francis also called for an end to all forms of fundamentalism and said that fighting hunger and poverty is much more important than applying military ways to end fundemantalism.
Stressing that Turkey carries great responsibility due to its history and geographic position, pope said Turkey's choices will have a special importance to end fundamentalism. Saying that Turkey can contribute bringing civilizations together, pope asked God's blessing on Turkey and asked God turn Turkey into a “peace builder”.
Speaking at the joint press conference, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan warned about the rising Islamophobia especially in the Western world and complained about the prejudices and intolerance in Western countries, calling Muslims as reactionists and pro-vioelence. He also complained about the media contributing to these racist, discriminative approach in the world against Muslims.
Erdoğan said, the negative perception of the Muslims around the world creates an anger in the Islamic societies and some of them fall prey to the exploitation of terrorist organizations. He also claimed that terrorist organizations like ISIL and Boko Haram are the consequences of wrong policies against Muslims around the world.
Erdoğan talked about Bashar al-Assad regime in Syria and complained that the world does nothing to stop Assad's cruelty against his own people. Erdoğan also criticized the Western world not taking a stand against Israel's policies in Gaza and disregarding the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) terror in Turkey.
He said the world needs to come up with a solution aganist intolerance. Erdoğan said, pope's visit to Turkey will please the Islamic world and help to overcome the prejudices in the Christian world against Muslims. Erdoğan expressed his wish that pope's visit will be a first step of a new page for tolerance in the world.
Erdoğan also said that military coups, mass killings and human rights abuses are almost encouraged and this kind of double standart and injustice hurting the soul of Islamic societies and the people who believe in justice. Local press mentioned that Erdoğan's criticism of this double standart was also targeting Pope Francis who received Mohammed Fattah al-Sisi earlier this week. Erdoğan lashes out against al-Sisi, saying that he came to power after a military coup toppling the Mohammed Morsi, the previous president of Egypt.
Turkish police closed a number of streets before Pope's arrival for security reasons and many police helicopters were flying over the city. According to the local press reports, about 3,000 police officers were assigned for the pope's visit. This number will be doubled in İstanbul, where pope is expected to visit on Saturday and Sunday.
Pope first was greeted by the Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu at the airport. Then Pope Francis' first stop in the Turkish capital became the mausoleum of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the founder of the Turkish Republic.
Then pope's motorcade proceeded to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's new presidential palace, accompanied by a large number of mounted policemen.
At the gates of the palace, his holiness was greeted by Erdoğan himself. Pope also became the first head of state who hosted in the new luxurious palace, which reportedly has rooms between 1000 to 5000. The palace costed about 620 million US dollars.
Before his arrival, pope has been criticized by some of the main opposition Republican Peoples' Party (CHP) members in Turkey and asked not to give credit to Erdoğan by accepting to be hosted in the palace. But Vatican made a statement before pope's visit, saying that the pope will be hosted wherever the Turkish government finds its suitable.
After meeting with Erdoğan and prime minister Ahmet Davutoğlu, pope visited Religious Affairs Directorate head Mehmet Görmez for talks with him.
Görmez criticized Pope Francis before while speaking about the attacks on mosgues in Germany. All religious institutions, including the Vatican, should focus on these rising attacks against mosques, Görmez had said.
“This doesn't happen through things like washing a young girl's feet or arranging interfaith football games and tournaments,” Görmez had said in an apparent reference to symbolic gestures displayed recently by Pope Francis. In March of 2013, the pope made international headlines by washing the feet of two Muslims at a juvenile detention center in Rome.
The Turkish actress Serra Yılmaz, who also is a professional translator, is serving as the pope's translator during his visit.
In honor of Pope Francis, Turkish soldiers fired a 21-gun salute upon his arrival at the palace.
The pope's three-day visit to Turkey will continue in İstanbul and he's expected to urge for tolerance and dialogue at a moment when the Middle East is troubled and under threat from the extremist ISIL, which is known for its brutal ways against Christians and other ethnic and religious groups.
Pope Francis said on Tuesday that while it was "almost impossible" to have a dialogue with ISIL militants, the door should not be shut. The trip to Turkey will be the third trip to a predominantly Muslim nation by the pope, after Jordan and Albania.
In an interview with the Israeli daily Yediot Ahronot that was published on Thursday, Francis was quoted as saying that the persecution of Christians today is "the worst" it has been since Christianity's earliest days. "In Iraq, for example, barbaric, criminal indescribable things are being committed." The pope told the newspaper that the persecution of Christians, Yazidis and other ethnic communities requires both political and religious leaders, especially Muslims, to "take a clear and brave stand."
-- Erdoğan's criticism of others who met pope
President Erdoğan has previously criticized other prominent Turkish figures for their meetings with the pope.
Before the March 30 local elections, then-Prime Minister Erdoğan lashed out at Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen -- who is known for his support for interfaith dialogue -- for his meeting with Pope John Paul II in 1998, calling Gülen a “traitor,” a “hollow preacher,” a “virus,” a “false prophet,” “hashashin”-- an aberrant terrorist assassins' organization in history -- and other things.
During a rally in Isparta in March, Erdoğan had said: “Praise be! As you know he [Gülen] had photos taken with the pope, hand-in-hand, arm-in-arm,” in an attempt to discredit the elderly Muslim cleric whom Erdoğan accuses of establishing a “state within a state.”
When asked what he thinks about Erdoğan's criticism of Gülen for his meeting with Pope John Paul II, CHP deputy İhsan Özkes said: “As you know, the [Justice and Development Party] AK Party has fallen into a deep hole in the foreign policy area. It's all alone. And it's not a precious loneliness. The pope's visit to Turkey in this atmosphere is a way for the government to find support to get out of that precious loneliness.”
“But when others meet with the pope, they [the AK Party] lash out, trying to discredit them. They have no rules and they use everyone and everything for their purposes. In that sense, they call something white today, but call the same thing black when the tide turns. This is their character,” he added.
“They are exploiting the pope's visit and are trying to be whitewashed in the eyes of the Christian world as well,” Özkes said. (Cihan/Today's Zaman)
SHOTLIST
TURKEY, ANKARA, 28 NOV 2014
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