Papal Bridge

Benedict XVI supported Turkey's accession to the EU

Today, Pope Benedict XVI is visiting Istanbul, where he meets with the Orthodox Patriarch of Constantinople Bartholomew I. For the remaining days of the pontiff's four-day visit to Turkey, conversations are planned with the heads of other Christian communities, as well as Muslim and Jewish leaders of this predominantly Islamic, but constitutionally secular 71- country of millions.

Yesterday, on the first day of the visit , Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan met the guest on the tarmac of Ankara airport. This politician with deep Islamic roots announced his intention to personally greet the head of the 1.1 billion Roman Catholic Church only a few hours before his guest's arrival. According to Prime Minister Erdogan, the meeting made it possible to relieve tensions that arose after the famous September lecture of the Pope in Bavaria - many in the Islamic world regarded this speech as an insult to the Prophet Muhammad.

The prime minister also said that the Vatican, as the pontiff assured him of this, supports Turkey’s accession to the European Union. Let us recall that in 2004, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger (now Pope Benedict XVI) called Turkey’s possible admission to the EU “a huge mistake.” Now he admitted to Erdogan that he “has long dreamed of visiting” Turkey, “a democratic Islamic state that is a bridge between religions.” The head of the Roman Catholic Church left a note of approximately the same content yesterday in the book of honored guests of the mausoleum of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the founder of the Turkish Republic. At a meeting with the country's President Ahmet Necdet Sezer, the pontiff said that he felt “love for the people of Turkey and appreciates the qualities of this people, who are destined for a special place in the development of civilizations.”

Demonstrators protesting against the papal visit under theological slogans such as “Isa (Jesus Christ. - Ed. ) is not God, but a prophet of Allah,” were allowed to gather only at the building of the Ministry of Religious Affairs in Ankara. The guest's safety is protected by over three thousand Turkish law enforcement officers, including snipers. Benedict XVI travels around Turkey not in the famous “Popemobile”, but in an armored limousine. To disorient possible attackers, the use of false tuples is provided, in which, of course, the pontiff will not be present.

Alexander SAMOKHOTKIN