APOSTOLIC VOYAGE TO TURKEY

Ancient faith faces an uncertain future

John Kass
Chicago Tribune
November 26, 2006

Imagine the Vatican surrounded in a fiercely secular yet very Muslim Italy.

The Christian community there has dwindled to only a few thousand after decades of ethnic cleansing. Much of the church's property has been seized. The government has closed the only seminary and refuses to reopen it.

A law has been passed: Any future Roman Catholic pope must be born on Italian soil, even though there is no seminary to train the young priests, even as the Christian community shrinks to a handful. A cold shadow falls on the Western church.

I asked you to imagine this because it's going on, right now, but not in Rome.

It is happening in Istanbul, where Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I, patriarch of Constantinople and spiritual leader of the world's Orthodox Church, is facing extreme pressure by the Turkish government.

This week, Pope Benedict XVI will travel to Turkey and pray with Bartholomew, and witness the liturgy in the Church of St. George.

The focus will be on the pope relying on the patriarch to help make inroads with Muslims, after comments the pope made this year about violence and Islam.

But I hope his visit will also draw attention to the desperate plight of the Orthodox Church, which has been largely ignored. There are an estimated 250,000 Orthodox Christians in the Chicago area, enough, you might think, for attention to be paid, especially now.

The pope will hear the liturgy as it was sung more than a thousand years ago, when there was only one church, before the split into East and West.

"They will exchange the kiss of peace, and they will bless the people, and they will recite together the 'Our Father' in Greek, the original [scriptural] language," said Archbishop Demetrios, leader of the Greek Orthodox Church in America, who will lead the American delegation.

"Then the two of them will go out to the elevated balcony, if you remember it, and bless the people who will be gathered in the courtyard," the archbishop told me.

I do remember. I was there, at St. George, at the patriarchate this past summer, watching the baptism of my nephew. We had the honor of visiting with Bartholomew, who said with a smile that he reads the Chicago Tribune online.

Obviously, I have strong, personal and religious feelings about this and can't pretend otherwise, yet I mean no disrespect to Turkey or to Islam.

The streets in that quarter of Istanbul are narrow. The bus stops at the bottom of the hill. You walk past a few shops, on up, and eventually, through the gates of the compound.

Once there, you begin to realize how central the patriarchate has been to Christianity, dating from about A.D. 300, when the Gospels of the New Testament were being selected, and later, when the Nicene Creed, a statement of faith recited by Catholics, Orthodox and other Christians, was created before the schism.

That the media ignores the patriarch's plight is astounding and hurtful to me. As is the realization that all that history could be gone if things don't change in Istanbul, in what was once called Constantinople, the heart of the Byzantine Empire.

At the patriarchate, one of the exterior doors is never opened. It has remained closed since 1821, when Greece fought for its independence from the Ottoman sultans, and the patriarch then was dragged out and hanged from that very doorway.

Today, Turkey is a fascinating, wonderful place, worthy of American tourism, worthy of American respect.

The people are friendly and hospitable, and the history is astounding. The Blue Mosque, the Topkapi Palace, the ancient covered market, still thriving. That it has remained a nation is testament to the intense will of Kemal Ataturk, founder of the modern secular Turkish state, which now must deal with growing Islamic fundamentalism.

All of this is important for Americans to grasp, as the West realizes, finally, that ignoring Islam is impossible.

For me, it was especially important to visit Hagia Sophia, literally, the Church of Divine Wisdom, the ancient domed structure that was turned into a mosque when the Turks took Constantinople in 1453.

It is an immense structure, larger even than its copy, St. Peter's Basilica in Rome, and is nearly 1,500 years old.

There, I thought of the worshipers fearfully singing the liturgy as the city walls were breached, as the slaughter began, as a Christian empire that had stood for more than 1,000 years perished.

Most icons were destroyed, but you can see the Virgin Mary on the wall near what had been the altar. A sign prohibits religious observance, but the guards don't stop you from praying.

Pope Benedict is also scheduled to visit Hagia Sophia, now tersely referred to as a museum.

As he visits there, the news images may be sent around the world to remind us of what was, and how what little is left is slipping away.

[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 28/11/2006 6.38]

While looking for appropriate material to post as a primer on Ayasofya (Hagia Sophia in its Greek form), I came across a Byzantine culture site site www.byzantines.net/ operating out of a Byzantine community in Georgia.

Here is some of their material. They advocate 'full religious rights for the minorities in Turkey, reintegration of Cyprus, and - the least likely of unlikely goals - a return of Hagia Sophia to the Patriarchate of Constantinople, as a condition to EU membership.


Hagia Sophia by day.


The site provides this picture and its caption: 'Above is an idealized image of the Great Church
as it might appear today, had it not been desecrated by the Turks first as a mosque and later as a tourist attraction.
The minarets have been removed and the life-giving cross restored to the dome' .


Hagia Sophia or Holy Wisdom is the mother church of all Eastern Christians of the Byzantine liturgical tradition both Orthodox and Greek Catholic.

Early accounts suggest that the site of this, the grandest church in Christendom in the first millennium, had been the site of a pagan temple appropriated for the service of the new religion.

The first church on the site was built by the Eastern Roman Emperor Constantius, son of Emperor Constantine, who had liberated the Christian faith from centuries of persecution. Constantius' church was consecrated in 360 AD.

At first it was known as the Great Church because it was the largest at the time. Later it became known as Santa Sophia (Holy Wisdom), a name attributed to Christ by theologians of the 4th century.

In 404 AD the church was destroyed by mobs set into action when Emperor Arcadius sent Archbishop John Chrysostom into exile for his criticism of the Empress. In 415 AD Emperor Theodosius II rebuilt the church. It too fell victim to a rampaging mob at the time of Monophysite heretics in 532 AD.

The new Emperor Justinian, firm defender of orthodoxy, made short work of the howling heretics and ordered that construction begin on a new basilica such as had never been seen before. The construction work lasted from 532 to 537; the new church was consecrated by Patriarch Menas on December 27, 537.

Architecturally the grand basilica represented a major revolution in church construction in that it featured a huge dome which necessitated the implementation of new ideas in order to support the weight of this dome, a feat which had not been attempted before.

The dome which became universal in Byzantine church construction represented the vault of heaven thus constituting a feature quasi-liturgical in function. In the days when there was no steel used in construction, large roofs and domes had to be supported by massive pillars and walls.

The dome of Hagia Sophia was supported by four piers (the solid supports from which the arches spring), each measuring about 118 square yards at the base. Four arches swing across linked by four pendentives (the parts of a groined ceiling springing from the pillars). The apices of the arches and the pendentives support the circular base from which rises the dome which is pierced by forty single-arched windows which admit light to the interior.

The church itself measures 260 x 270 feet; the dome rises 210 feet above the floor and has a diameter of 110 feet. The nave is 135 feet wide, more than twice the width of the aisles which measure 62 feet.

Because Constantinople lies in an earthquake-prone region, the massive structure of the Great Church was deemed sufficient to meet the threat. That expectation however was disappointed when in later years earthquakes destroyed parts of the church and dome, requiring massive repairs including the construction of large buttresses to support the walls which in turn held up the dome.

In 1204 AD, Roman Catholic crusaders of the Fourth Crusade attacked and sacked Constantinople and the Great Church, leaving behind a legacy of bitterness among Eastern Christians which continues to this day.

For more than 1000 years Holy Wisdom served as the cathedral church of the Patriarch of Constantinople as well as the church of the Byzantine court but that function came to an end on May 29, 1453, when the Ottoman Turkish Sultan Mehmet the Conqueror seized the Imperial City and converted the Great Church into his mosque. It remained a mosque until 1935 when Turkish head-of-state Mustafa Kemal converted it into a museum.

Years later the plaster which had been applied by the Muslims to cover the icons was removed revealing for the first time to modern eyes the extent of the desecration perpetrated by the Muslims in their effort to render the structure appropriate for their own purposes.

In its heyday as the Imperial church, Hagia Sophia was served by 80 priests, 150 deacons, 60 subdeacons, 160 readers, 25 cantors and 75 doorkeepers. It was the model for other Byzantine churches throughout Eastern Christendom as seen for example in the Church of Holy Wisdom in Kyiv. In the Slavic East the style was modified to suit the Slavic esthetic sensibilities, most notable in Russia where the soaring but narrower domes top the many beautiful churches.

In the 1000 years that Hagia Sophia was the see of the Patriarch it was also seen as the mother church of the Christian East. The liturgies which evolved there in the full panoply of the splendor of the Imperial court gave them the dignity and stunning beauty which they possess today, in contrast to the more restrained liturgies of other traditions.

Thus Eastern Christians of the Byzantine liturgical tradition are the inheritors and descendants of Byzantium, recalling whenever the Divine Liturgy is celebrated the glory of the Great Church in its ancient days.

Where once potentates and patriarchs, prelates and priests, saints and sinners moved in solemn procession, tourists now loiter and stare. The images looking down from the walls are no longer the windows to heaven but silent witnesses to the profanities of the Muslims and the vulgarities of the tourist trade.

Gone are the chanting priests; gone too are the smells and bells of the East. No longer do the cherubim descend to accompany and to praise the Holy Mysteries. The Great Church is little more than a mound of architecturally ordered stones devoid of the life of liturgy.

Away from the rule of the heathen Turk, in other places where orthodox Christians may gather one can still perceive imperfectly that vision of the splendor of heaven unfolded in the Byzantine Divine Liturgy, for ours is truly a royal worship, the prayer of kings.

EPILOGUE
With the fall of Constantinople and the desecration of the Great Church in 1453, the Turks were free to complete the conquest of the Christian peoples of the Balkans. Greeks, Bulgarians, Macedonians, Serbs, Montenegrans, Croats, Slovenes, Romanians and Hungarians came under the yoke of the oppressor.

Twice, in the following centuries, in 1529 and 1683, the Turks appeared at the gates of Vienna only to be turned back miraculously. Only with the growing awareness of the emerging states in central and western Europe and with the defeat of the Turkish fleet at Lapanto in 1571 by the combined fleets of Venice, Spain and the Papal States was the march of Islam into the heart of western Christendom stopped.

Thus was central and western Europe spared the fate of the Christian populations in southeastern Europe. Five hundred years of Turkish oppression and forced conversions to Islam were met with stout resistence by the Christians of the Balkans. Enslavement and martyrdom befell those who resisted. Time and again Christians were called upon to witness the faith and to win the crown of martyrdom.

One can only speculate about the extent to which the valor of the faithful through resistance and rebellion kept the Turks from pressing further with their efforts to subject all Europe to the rule of Islam. The Christian neomartyrs (3) of the Turkish yoke are remembered each year on the third Sunday after Pentecost.

The same site has some best-scenario points to propose to Pope Benedict and Patriarch Bartholomew:

We do not know, of course, what the agenda of the Pope and the Patriarch might be, but suspect that Turkey's effort to join the EU will come up in the conversations, as we are sure that the Patriarch and his Turkish adversaries are well aware of the Pope's views on that subject. Among the issues which we advance as appropriate for their consideration are the following:

CIVIL RIGHTS FOR TURKEY'S RELIGIOUS AND ETHNIC MINORITIES
The government of Turkey should agree to and actually implement a program of legal and administrative reform which removes the last vestiges of dhimmi status for its religious and ethnic minorities and which assures beyond cavil that such minorities receive the same civil rights that Turkish nationals are granted in Europe, plus the same substantive and procedural remedies to enforce the same.

That would include removing from the back of the Patriarch the remaining baggage of the Ottoman past, setting the Patriarch free to enjoy the same freedom to carry out his mission which he would possess, were he resident in Europe or North America.

RESTORATION OF CYPRUS TO THE STATUS QUO PRIOR TO THE TURKISH INVASION

Cyprus represents a modern application of ancient Ottoman anti-European, anti-Christian imperialism. Turkey invaded a sovereign country, partitioned it, and moved Turks from the mainland to occupy land from which the Greeks had been expelled.

Accordingly, we suggest that Cyprus be restored to its status quo before the invasion, that the imported Turks and their descendants be repatriated back to Turkey, and that all Greeks who were damaged as the result of the invasion and partition be fully compensated by the Turkish government for their losses.

RETURN OF HAGIA SOPHIA TO THE POSSESSION AND CONTROL OF THE ECUMENICAL PATRIARCH AS MOTHER CHURCH OF CHRISTENDOM -
A CONDITION PRECEDENT TO FURTHER CONSIDERATION OF TURKEY'S APPLICATION FOR MEMBERSHIP IN THE EUROPEAN UNION

Orthodox and Catholic Christians regard Hagia Sophia as the Mother Church of Christendom. It was the first temple of the Church of significance built to serve as the cathedral church of the Eastern Roman Empire and as model for the entire Church.

Hagia Sophia was built in the 5th century; it is old and in dire need of repairs and complete restoration within and without as the patriarchal church of Eastern Christendom.

While the Turkish government has allocated funds in the past for some repairs and for restoration of some of the iconography to make the edifice usable as a museum and tourist attraction to raise money for the state, the temple which Emperor Justinian built needs a thorough restoration to render it suitable once again for public worship as a Christian temple. That would cost a considerable sum of money, a sum which the Orthodox and Catholic Churches should undertake to raise.

Of course, that would depend on the Turkish government's willingness to return Hagia Sophia to the exclusive possession and ownership of the Ecumenical Patriarchate and to grant reasonable permits for its repair and restoration as a Christian temple for public worship as a condition precedent to any further consideration of its application to join the European Union an any capacity whatsoever.

[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 27/11/2006 5.40]

From Hurriyet -

Archbishop Dominique Mamberti, the Vatican's secretary for relations with states and de facto foreign minister, who was doing advance work for Pope Benedict XVI's upcoming visit to Turkey said in a recent interview with Avvenire, a Catholic daily newspaper that, in his major address, the pope is expected to express his appreciation of Muslims and voice his wish for cooperation between faiths for the good of humanity. The pope will also emphasise the need for freedom of faith in Turkey.

John Allen thinks so in his second column datelined 11/26/06:

On the eve of Pope Benedict XVI’s Nov. 28-Dec. 1 trip to Turkey, the Vatican confirmed today that he will visit the famed Blue Mosque in Istanbul, yet another sign of Benedict’s outreach to Muslims following the uproar created by his Sept. 12 comments on Mohammad at the University of Regensburg.

Without the pope having left Rome, the Vatican on Sunday took an enormous step towards making the Turkey trip a success, effectively neutralizing the issue of Turkey’s candidacy to join the European Union.

The ANSA news agency quoted Secretary of State Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone as saying, “I hope that Turkey can fulfill the conditions for entry into the EU and integration into Europe.”

Bertone added that the question of EU membership is a political matter, and that the Vatican will remain neutral.

Suggesting that the Vatican has crafted a corporate response on the EU question, spokesperson Jesuit Fr. Federico Lombardi said much the same thing in an interview with the Turkish news ageny Anatolia.

"Turkey's membership in the EU depends on its ability to meet the EU criteria. If Turkey fulfils its obligations and meets the requirements of the EU criteria, why shouldn't it become a full member of the EU?" Lombardi said.

That strikes a significantly different stance from then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger’s opposition to Turkey’s admission prior to his election as pope.

Ratzinger told Le Figaro in 2004, “Making the two continents identical would be a mistake. It would mean a loss of richness, the disappearance of the cultural to the benefit of economics.”

While most Turks are not religious extremists, many have looked at the new pope with apprehension as a possible foe of their country’s EU aspirations. By taking the issue off the table, Bertone has in effect “cleared the deck” for Benedict’s visit.

During his Angelus address today, Benedict looked ahead to the Turkey trip. [He quotes what the Pope said]

Also today, more than 25,000 Turks gathered in Istanbul to protest Benedict’s impending visit. The rally was organized by the small “Felicity Party,” a pro-Islamic faction that has expressed outrage over the pope’s comments at Regensburg. Banners at the event read “The pope was disrespectful to us and he needs to apologize,” and “Pope, don’t come to Turkey!”

Crowd size at the anti-papal protest, however, was significantly lower than organizers had originally projected.

[Significantly lower? What an understatement! From 1 million to 25,000 is more than just significantly lower]]

EWTN'S Joan Lewis tells us how she will be covering the Pope's trip in her blog, Joan's Rome, www.ewtn.com/news/blog.asp?blog_ID=1
on the day before Thanksgiving. She is presumably in Istanbul now.

...the next time you read this column I will be writing from Istanbul, Turkey. I leave Sunday afternoon and arrive late evening with the time change. Monday will be spent getting my journalist credentials from both the Turkish government center and the media office for the ecumenical patriarchate, exploring the media center at the Hilton Hotel as well as other essential venues for this trip.

Tuesday the Pope arrives and I will cover the Ankara portion of his trip from Istanbul and report via television, daily radio shows and this blog, as I mentioned in a earlier column.

Tuesday at 11a.m., a press conference will be held in the Hilton with Orthodox/Catholic hierarchical representatives prior to the Pope’s arrival for his meeting with Patriarch Bartholomew I. Archbishop Demetrios of America will represent the patriarch at the conference, and Bishop Brian Farrell of the Pontifical Council for Christian Unity will be there for the Vatican.

Wednesday morning I fly to Izmir and travel by ground transportation to Ephesus where I will cover Pope Benedict’s Mass and visit to the house and shrine of Mary. I return to Istanbul at 6, and that same evening the Pope and Patriarch will meet and pray together.

Thursday is dedicated to ceremonies for the patriarchal feast of their patron St. Andrew as well as the Pope’s meetings with other Christian religious leaders residing in Turkey. Friday, before returning to Rome, the Pope will celebrate Mass for Catholics in Holy Spirit Cathedral.

...............

May I ask you in coming days to pray for Pope Benedict as he undertakes this historic trip, for all those will travel on the papal plane and for all members of the media who will cover this papal visit. I recognize what a huge, truly awesome responsibility the media has to cover such events – to report them responsibly, thoroughly, without bias – and most importantly without an agenda.

Here is the text of the prayer suggested by the Knights of Columbus for their project, Spiritual Pilgrimage with the Pope.

The Knights started prayers for the pope’s intentions yesterday Nov. 26, the Solemnity of Christ the King.

The Knights of Columbus printed and distributed cards for distribution to their members and trhe public with this special prayer written by the Order’s Supreme Chaplain, Bishop William E. Lori. They have also been running newspaper advertisements with the prayer.

================================================================


Heavenly Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth takes its name, we humbly ask that you sustain, inspire, and protect your servant, Pope Benedict XVI, as he goes on pilgrimage to Turkey – a land to which St. Paul brought the Gospel of your Son; a land where once the Mother of your Son, the Seat of Wisdom, dwelt; a land where faith in your Son’s true divinity was definitively professed.

Bless our Holy Father, who comes as a messenger of truth and love to all people of faith and good will dwelling in this land so rich in history.

In the power of the Holy Spirit, may this visit of the Holy Father bring about deeper ties of understanding, cooperation, and peace among Roman Catholics, the Orthodox, and those who profess Islam.

May the prayers and events of these historic days greatly contribute both to greater accord among those who worship you, the living and true God, and also to peace in our world so often torn apart by war and sectarian violence.

We also ask, O Heavenly Father, that you watch over and protect Pope Benedict and entrust him to the loving care of Mary, under the title of Our Lady of Fatima, a title cherished both by Catholics and Muslims.

Through her prayers and maternal love, may Pope Benedict be kept safe from all harm as he prays, bears witness to the Gospel, and invites all peoples to a dialogue of faith, reason, and love. We make our prayer through Christ, our Lord. Amen.

Avvenire gives us a capsule look at the the two previous papal visits to Turkey, and it is interesting to note that Pope Benedict's trip is one day longer than John Paul's.

Too bad the capsules do not indicate how, if at all, the two other Popes dealt with the Turkish authorities during their visit. I hope some other sources provides the information - or that I have time to research it.

The only thing for certain is that the two previous Papal visits had virtually no political coloring whatsoever - not even with regard to minority rights to religious freedom - whereas Benedict's visit is overshadowed by its political implications. .

===============================================================


25-26 July 1967
Paul VI and Athenagoras,
hand in hand at St. George

Istanbul, Ephesus, Izmir. These were the places Paul VI visited in Turkey on July 25-16, 1967.

The Middle East was in flames. The Six-Day War (June 5-10 1967) and its consequences had the world watching with bated breath. It was hoped that Papa Montini's trip could give an impetus to peacemaking efforts.

In fact, the search for common ecumenical efforts to safeguard the Christian sites in the Holy Land was one of the topics for discussion with the Orthodox Patriarch.

The Catholic-Orthodox dialog was freshly launched on January 4, 1964, when Paul VI and Patriarch Athenagoras met in Jerusalem and exchanged a fraternal embrace for the first time.

Their rapport was dramatically illustrated at this visit to Turkey by Paul VI when, hand in hand, they entered the Cathedral of St. George in Istanbul.

On this trip, Paul VI also met with local Catholics, and the heads of the Jewish and Muslim communities in Istanbul.

28-30 November 1979
John Paul II and Dimitrios
together on St. Andrew's Day

aAnkara, Istanbul, Ephesus, Izmir. These were the places visited by John Paul II on November 28-30 , 1979, in Turkey.

It was an important and much-awaited visit. It was an occasion to re-start dialog with the Orthodox Church but also for relations with Islam, to which Wojtyla made specific references in his speeches. [Strange, but Joaquin Navarro Valls said in a recent editorial for La Repubblica - posted in this thread earlier - that John Paul II never even once mentioned Islam during his trip to Turkey! Also, apparently, the question of a visit to any mosque was not even thought of at this time. It wasn't till 200 (2001?) that John Paul visited the mosque in Damascus.]

But the heart of the trip was the encounter with the Ecumenical Patriarch Dimitrios I. Both men also entered St. George hand in hand, as they approached the iconostasis of the cathedral.

On November 30, they commemorated the feast of St. Andrew, "patron of the illustrious Church of Constantinople," , "the first to be called among the apostles, brother of Peter," - in the words of John Paul II, Successor of Peter.

Before returning to Rome, Papa Wojtyla flew to Izmir, and from there, travelled to Ephesus, where the third ecumenical council was held in 431, at which Mary of Nazareth was formally recognized as the "Mother of God." [He presumably visited Mary's House, too!]

The mosque was built between 1609 and 1616 by order of the Sultan Ahmed I, after whom it is named. He is buried in the mosque's precincts. It is located in the oldest part of Istanbul, in what was before 1453 the centre of Constantinople, the capital of the Byzantine Empire. It is next to the site of the ancient Hippodrome, and a short distance from the great Christian Church of the Holy Wisdom (Hagia Sophia).

It is within walking distance of the Topkapi Palace, residence of the Ottoman Sultans until 1853 and only a short distance from the shore of the Bosphorus. Seen from the sea, its domes and minarets - along with those of Hagia Sophia - dominate the skyline of the old part of the city, as was its builders' intention.


Hagia Sophia on the left, the Blue Mosque is on the right, seen from the Golden Horn.

The mosque was deliberately sited to face Hagia Sophia, to demonstrate that Ottoman and Islamic architects and builders could rival anything their Christian predecessors had created.

However, the architect was unable to construct a bigger dome then Hagia Sophia's, so he instead made the mosque splendid by the perfect proportion of domes, semidomes, and minarets. Still, the building failed to surpass Hagia Sophia in terms of size, which greatly angered Sultan Ahmet. The two buildings thus comprise a unique historical and architectural precinct.

The mosque became known in the west as the Blue Mosque because of the predominantly blue colouring of paintwork of the interior. However this blue paint was not part of the mosque's original decor so it is being removed. Today the interior of the mosque does not strike the visitor as being particularly blue.



The architect of the Sultan Ahmed, Sedefhar Mehmet Aga, was given a mandate to spare no expense in creating the most magnificent and beautiful place of Islamic worship in the world. The basic structure of the mosque is a near-cube, measuring 53 by 51 metres. As is the case with all mosques, it is aligned so that when worshippers perform the Salah (Islamic prayers), they are facing Makkah (Mecca), with the mihrab or prayer niche in front of them.

The cube is topped by an ascending system of domes and semi-domes, culminating in the central dome, which is 33 metres in diameter and 43 metres high at its central point. The overall effect is one of perfect visual harmony, leading the eye up to the peak of the dome.

The Sultan Ahmed Mosque is the only mosque in Turkey that has six minarets. When the number of minarets was revealed, the Sultan was criticised for presumption, since this was, at the time, the same number as at the mosque of the Ka'aba in Mecca. He overcame this problem by paying for a seventh minaret at the Mecca mosque.

At its lower levels the interior of the mosque is lined with more than 20,000 handmade ceramic tiles, made at Iznik (the ancient Nicaea). Its upper levels are painted. More than 200 stained glass windows with intricate designs admit natural light, today assisted by chandeliers.

The decorations include verses from the Qur'an, many of them made by Seyyid Kasim Gubari, regarded as the greatest calligrapher of his time. The floors are covered with carpets, which are donated by the faithful and are regularly replaced as they become worn.

The most important element in the interior of the mosque is the mihrab, which is made of finely carved and sculptured marble, the adjacent walls sheathed in ceramic tiles. To the right of the mihrab is the minber, or pulpit, where the Imam stands when he is delivering his sermon at the time of noon prayer on Fridays or on holy days.

The mosque has been designed so that even when it is at its most crowded, everyone in the mosque can see and hear the Imam.
Each of the minarets has three balconies, and until recently the muezzin or prayer-caller had to climb a narrow spiral staircase five times a day to announce the call to prayer.

Today a public address system is used, and the call can be heard across the old part of the city, echoed by other mosques in the vicinity. Large crowds of both Turks and tourists gather at sunset in the park facing the mosque to hear the call to evening prayers, as the sun sets and the mosque is brilliantly illuminated by coloured floodlights.

[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 27/11/2006 13.30]

VATICAN CITY, Nov. 27 (AP) - Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has changed his plans and will meet Pope Benedict XVI in Turkey on Tuesday, the Vatican said.

Erdogan had orginally planned not to meet the pope, citing his attendance at a NATO summit in Latvia. He will now meet Benedict at the airport on the pontiff's arrival before leaving for Latvia, Vatican spokesman the Rev. Federico Lombardi said Monday.


And here's AP's full pre-trip wrap-up:

Pope faces dual tests in Turkey
By BRIAN MURPHY, AP Religion Writer
Nov. 26, 2006


ATHENS, Greece - Ever since Pope Benedict XVI wandered into the religious crossfire between Islam and the West, the Vatican has been busy trying to retreat to calmer ground.

On Monday, the Vatican said Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has changed his plans and will meet Pope Benedict XVI in Turkey on Tuesday.

Erdogan had orginally planned not to meet the pope, citing his attendance at a NATO summit in Latvia. He will now meet Benedict at the airport on the pontiff's arrival before leaving for Latvia, Vatican spokesman Rev. Federico Lombardi said Monday.

Meanwhile, hardly a week has passed since the pope's explosive remarks in September on violence and the Prophet Muhammad without some gesture toward Muslims, including a private papal audience for Muslim ambassadors and a highly publicized message of unity for Islam's holy month of Ramadan.

Whether the fence-mending means anything on the Muslim street may be answered when Benedict begins a four-day trip to Turkey on Tuesday, his first papal visit to a mostly Muslim nation.

It also may offer a window on the potency of hard-line Islamic sentiment in a country trying to convince the European Union that its cultural and religious heritage should not complicate its bid for membership.

No one expects a quiet visit for Benedict. There have already been protests, the largest of which was Sunday, when an estimated 25,000 Turks denounced Benedict as an enemy of Islam. The rally was in Istanbul, the ancient Christian capital of Constantinople where the pope plans to meet the spiritual leader of the world's Orthodox Christians, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I.

On Wednesday, about 40 members of a Turkish nationalist party occupied Istanbul's famous Haghia Sophia — a former Byzantine church and mosque — and chanted slogans against the pope.

Banners unfurled in Istanbul earlier this week depicted Bartholomew and Benedict as a two-headed snake.

"He's coming to advance the ambitions of the Christian world. I don't want him to come," said Sadik Kar, a 43-year-old computer salesman, after prayers at an Istanbul mosque.

Ali Bardakoglu, who heads religious affairs in Turkey, urged a "civilized" response to the papal visit. "Even if we don't agree with them, we always host our guests in a civilized manner," he said.

In Turkey, Benedict is a target from two directions.

Muslim anger is still easily stoked from Benedict's comments, in which he quoted a 14th century Christian emperor who characterized Muhammad's teachings as "evil and inhuman." 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.

Many in Turkey also perceive Benedict as a symbol of resistance to Turkey's EU ambitions because of his support for reinforcing Europe's shared Christian bonds. The EU's overtures have cooled considerably over questions about how to reconcile Turkey's dual natures: a strongly secular government and Western-looking intelligentsia, but also widespread poverty and deep conservatism that is opening doors for more radical views.

"We see the visit of Pope Benedict XVI to Turkey as important," said Bulent Arinc, the head of Turkey's parliament. "It may be possible to correct some mistakes by coming together. You don't shake hands with a closed fist."

But it's unclear how far the Vatican is willing to go.

Benedict is not inclined to the "grand gestures" of his predecessor, Pope John Paul II, and prefers a more methodical approach in tune with his background as a scholar and theologian, said John Voll, associate director of the Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding at Georgetown University.

"The pope is trying to build a real foundation — that's theologically supported — for a meaningful dialogue between Muslims and Christians on issues such as faith and reason," Voll said. "Don't expect any big apology. From the Vatican's point of view, they have dealt with it. They are moving beyond that."

Yet that doesn't mean Benedict's trip is without possible fallout among Muslims.

He's expected to draw attention to the treatment of Christian minorities in the Islamic world, including the vestige of the once-thriving Greek Orthodox community in Turkey. Earlier this month, an EU progress report on Turkey's membership bid urged more steps to boost rights of non-Muslim religious groups.

Benedict's visit also will revive memories of an Italian priest, the Rev. Andrea Santoro, who was killed by a teenage gunman in his church on Turkey's Black Sea coast in February. The slaying came amid widespread protests over cartoons depicting Muhammad that were first published by a Danish newspaper.

The Vatican on Friday said Benedict is considering a brief stop at Istanbul's Blue Mosque. During a visit to Syria in 2001, John Paul became the first pope to visit a mosque.

"There's much potential with this trip and much is at stake," said Diaa Rashwan, political researcher for Al-Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies in Cairo, Egypt.

"It could be an ideal opportunity to build fresh ties with Muslims since Turkey is considered as a kind of bridge between the West and Islam," he said. "But it's a very delicate time now. If the pope appears to disrespect Islam again, then it could be a step backward."

(Associated Press correspondent Benjamin Harvey in Istanbul contributed to this report.)

Here is Reuters's pre-trip wrap-up:

Pope off to Turkey,
a delicate balancing act
By Philip Pullella

VATICAN CITY, Nov. 26 (Reuters) - Pope Benedict sets off on Tuesday on one of the most delicate trips by a Pontiff, visiting Turkey, where resentment is seething over his comments on Islam and opposition to Ankara's EU bid.

The visit by the leader of 1.1 billion Roman Catholics was originally intended to be a pre-eminently Christian event centered around a meeting with the Istanbul-based head of the world's 250 million Orthodox Christians.

But it has taken on much vaster political ramifications in Western-Islamic relations, East-West ties, Catholic-Muslim relations and Turkey's own aspirations to be part of Europe.

The 79-year-old Pope will have to attempt to repair damage on several fronts as he visits the predominantly Muslim country that is officially secular.

The attitude to the Pope in Turkey ranges from total secular indifference to passionate religious or political anger.

Benedict infuriated Muslims worldwide in September with a lecture that appeared to portray Islam as an irrational religions tainted by violence. He later expressed regret over the pain his remarks caused but stopped short of a full apology.

Many Islamic officials want him to state clearly that he believes Islam to be a religion of peace.

"I think the attitude the Pope should take is that neither Islam nor Christianity is a source of violence," said Ali Bardakoglu, who heads Ankara's Directorate General for Religious Affairs which controls Turkish imams and writes their sermons.

In a post-September 11 world where some in the West associate Islam with violence, Benedict is expected to strongly re-state his belief that all religious leaders should take a united stand that religion can never be used to justify violence.

One possible gesture of reconciliation will come on Thursday, when the Pope will make a hastily added visit to Istanbul's famous Blue Mosque.

It will be his first visit to a mosque as Pope and only the second ever by a pontiff. His predecessor John Paul II became the first pope to visit a mosque, in Damascus in 2001.

Turkey plans tight security measures for the Pope, whose trip takes in the capital Ankara, the commercial and cultural hub of Istanbul, where tens of thousands of people took part in a "Pope, don't come" demonstration on Sunday.

He will also visit the site where the Virgin Mary is believed to have lived and died near Izmir on the Aegean coast.

Unusually for a Pope trip, Benedict will not use a glass-sided "popemobile" but travel in a closed car.

Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan at first said he would not be able to meet the Pope because he was due to attend a NATO summit but after widespread criticism he is now expected to hold a brief meeting at Ankara airport before leaving for the summit.

Before his 2005 election as Pope, the then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger expressed serious reservations about Turkey's bid to be a member of the European Union, citing religious and cultural differences.

The Vatican now says it is not opposed to EU membership for Turkey and the Pope has shied away from the topic since his election but he is expected to get an earful during the visit.

Patriarch Bartholomew, head of the world's Orthodox Christians, has said he would tell the Pope that the EU must not be a "Christian club" and that Turkey must be allowed to join.

Turkey began its EU entry talks last year but is not expected to join the bloc for many years if ever. It faces growing resistance, notably from France and the Pope's native Germany, who are fearful that it would dilute the EU too much.

There are only 120,000 Christians, about 30,000 of them Catholic, in Turkey today, compared to 2 million a century ago.

[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 27/11/2006 13.47]

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Security precautions for Pope Benedict XVI, which are
the same for visiting heads of state, will also reportedly be taken
up by Israel's intelligence service the Mossad. The Italian daily La
Republica has reported that Mossad agents and Italian and Vatican
security and intelligence officers have arrived in Turkey to help
Turkish security units. La Republica also reported that security units
in Istanbul arrested a group in preparation for an attack on the pope a
few weeks ago in Istanbul. However, no detailed information was given
on the identity and nationality of the suspects. The paper also wrote
that Cardinal Walter Kasper, the head of the Council for Promoting
Christian Unity, who is visiting Turkey with the pope, might also
have been chosen as a possible a target, reports Anadolu News Agency.

The Associated Press

By SUZAN FRASER

November 26, 2006

We face serious problems. Turkish citizens who converted to Christianity, especially, face serious discrimination and violence

Next door to a store selling artificial limbs in a run-down area of Turkey's capital, the Protestant church sits on the ground floor of a dreary apartment block, with barred windows and kitchen chairs for pews.

The 100-strong congregation of the Kurtulus Church, which is linked to the U.S.-based International Church of the Foursquare Gospel, rents the space because authorities have not responded to its request for land and a permit to build a proper chapel.

When Pope Benedict XVI visits Turkey for four days starting Tuesday, he will try to ease anger over his recent remarks linking Islam and violence. But he is also expected to press the 99 percent Muslim country to give its Christian community more rights. Some of those Christians are forced to worship in so-called 'apartment churches,' and suffer prejudice, discrimination, even assault.

'The pope will discuss the rights of the religious minority' with Turkish officials, said Monsignor Luigi Padovese, the pope's vicar in Anatolia. 'In a secular country, people must have the right to believe in whatever faith they choose to believe.'

The pastor of Kurtulus Church, the Rev. Ihsan Ozbek, sees an opening for dialogue. 'We face serious problems. Turkish citizens who converted to Christianity, especially, face serious discrimination and violence,' he said.

The windows of his makeshift chapel have twice been smashed by suspected Turkish nationalists, reflecting a widely held conviction that conversion is treason and that Christian clergy are missionaries or spies for Western powers.

Of Turkey's 70 million people, some 65,000 are Armenian Orthodox Christians, 20,000 are Roman Catholic, and 3,500 are Protestant, mostly converts from Islam. Another 2,000 are Greek Orthodox and 23,000 are Jewish.

The shrunken Christian presence belies the church's deep roots in latter-day Turkey.

Constantinople _ modern-day Istanbul _ was the Christian Byzantine capital for more than 1,000 years until it fell to Muslim forces in 1453 and became the seat of the Muslim Ottoman Empire.

St. John the Apostle is said to have brought the Virgin Mary to Ephesus, 400 miles southwest of Istanbul, where she is believed to have spent her final years, while St. Paul traveled through much of modern-day Turkey on his missionary journeys.

Iznik is the former Nicea, where early Christian doctrine was formulated in 325 A.D. All seven major churches of early Christianity, mentioned in The New Testament, are in present-day Turkey. The pope will make a pilgrimage to one of them at Ephesus.

Today, Istanbul remains the center of Orthodoxy and the seat of Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I, considered 'the first among equals' among the Orthodox leadership.

But membership is dwindling. The sole seminary training Greek Orthodox monks was ordered closed in 1971, and no alternative site has been granted. Turkish law also makes it impossible to import non-Turkish seminarians, and requires that the patriarchs be Turkish citizens, severely reducing the pool of candidates to succeed 66-year-old Bartholomew.

The Armenian Orthodox community's seminary is also closed, confronting it with the same challenge, while Greek and Armenian communities are struggling to recover property that the state confiscated in the 1970s.

Turkey wants to join the European Union, which is pressing it for greater tolerance. Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's Islamic-rooted government has taken some steps toward change, amending laws to allow religious minorities to recover some property. The government has also indicated willingness to reopen the minority seminaries, but has failed to find a formula that conforms with the country's secular laws.

Even though Turkey is secular and Turks are considered moderately religious, authorities often report students who attend Christian meetings to their families to prevent possible conversions, and proselytizers are detained and extradited.

The distrust is so deep that non-Muslims are barred from the police force and military.

In February, a Turkish teenager shot dead a Catholic priest, Rev. Andrea Santoro, as he knelt in prayer in his church in the Black Sea port of Trabzon. The attack was believed linked to widespread anger in the Islamic world over the publication in European newspapers of caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad. Two other Catholic priests were attacked this year.

The Times November 27, 2006


Richard Owen, Rome
# Security includes bulletproof vest
# Prime Minister will meet pontiff

The Vatican is so anxious about the Pope’s safety during his trip to Turkey this week that it has vetoed use of the traditional “Popemobile”.

Instead, Pope Benedict XVI will travel in an armour-plated car, with several similar vehicles used as decoys, Joaquin Navarro-Valls, the former papal spokesman, said.

Officials have also drawn up contingency plans for him to wear a bulletproof vest beneath his papal vestments as Turkish authorities mount a huge security operation including rooftop snipers, special forces, helicopters and navy speedboats.

Before his first visit to a Muslim country, the Pope tried to defuse further protests yesterday, sending “cordial greetings” of “esteem and sincere friendship” to “the dear Turkish people” when he addressed pilgrims from his window above St Peter’s Square during Angelus prayers.

Papal aides confirmed that, in a conciliatory gesture to Muslims, the Pope had altered his official programme to include a visit to the Blue Mosque, or Sultanahmet, in Istanbul.

He will be the second Pope to set foot in a mosque, after John Paul II in Damascus in 2001.

In a reciprocal gesture Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the Turkish Prime Minister, indicated that he would “find time” after all to meet the Pope tomorrow at Ankara airport. He insisted that his absence during the Pope’s trip because of a Nato summit in Riga was not a “snub”. The Pope was “welcome” in Turkey, “but whoever comes here must show respect for the Prophet Muhammad”.

The exchanges reflect last-minute efforts on both sides to calm the tensions inflamed by the Pope’s Regensburg speech in September, which referred to Islam as “evil” and “violent”.

Cardinal Walter Kasper, the head of the pontifical Council for Christian Unity, one of five cardinals accompanying the Pope, conceded that the trip had become a “minefield”.

He told The Times that the Pope’s aim was to promote dialogue between faiths, even though the original focus had been Catholic reconciliation with the Orthodox Church.

Cardinal Kasper said that the Pope’s encounter on St Andrew’s Day with Bartholomew I, the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople, at the end of his trip remained “of fundamental importance”, as did protection of the Christian minority in Turkey. The two Christian leaders hope to move towards a healing of the 1,000-year-old schism between Latin and Eastern Christianity.

As a cardinal the Pope spoke out against the bid for EU membership by Turkey on religious and cultural grounds. Yesterday Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, the Secretary of State, said the Vatican hoped that Turkey would “fulfil the conditions for EU entry”.

Behind the scenes Vatican and Italian security forces have planned for the worst, with agents joining Turkish police in checking security arrangements in Ankara, Istanbul and Ephesus, the main stops on the Pope’s tour.

Video surveillance cameras have been installed around key buildings, including the Holy See embassy in Ankara, where the Pope will stay on the first night of his trip after paying respects at the Mausoleum of Ataturk. Turkish police appealed for restraint at planned protests, saying that they could harm the image of Turkey.

Great schism
# The Roman Catholic and Orthodox Churches split in 1054 in the “Great Schism” over papal authority

# Turkey’s Christians include Armenian Orthodox, Greek and Syrian Orthodox, Protestant and Catholic

# Christians total 200,000 of the country’s 70 million population

# Patriarch Bartholomew is head of the Greek Orthodox Church in Turkey and spiritual leader of the 300 million Orthodox worshippers worldwide

# Turkey is home to the first Christian church, the Cave Church of Saint Peter in Antakya in the southeast

Source: AFP

Turkish Press

Weekend demonstrations in Turkey against the visit of Pope Benedict XV1 have sparked off some soul-searching in the Turkish press.

With the pontiff expected to arrive on Tuesday, commentators in two leading papers call for him to be given a traditionally warm Turkish welcome.

SEMIH IDIZ IN MILLIYET

Turkey and the Vatican are working to ensure some positive outcomes from this visit, which is surrounded by negative expectations. That is why, as Turks, no matter what he has said in the past, we have to be supremely hospitable towards Pope Benedict, not only for our own esteem and image but for inter-religious peace as well.

EDITORIAL IN CUMHURIYET

Some groups in our country have started a protest campaign against the Pope. It is true that Benedict XVI made disagreeable statements about Turkey and Islam. However, the Pope is visiting as our guest. Even small protests and acts of unkindness which are at odds with our traditional hospitality go against the grain and harm our country. We must take care not to affect our national interests.

YASIN AKTAY IN YENI SAFAK

There has always been opposition in Turkey to the visit of any Pope. Even if Pope Benedict had not made the comments about Islam and the Prophet [Muhammad], his visit to Turkey would have been the subject of many critiques and opposition. However, in the past, it was religious feelings which motivated the opposition, whereas now, because of this unfortunate speech, nationalist issues have come to the fore to spark the protests against the Vatican.

ALI BULAC IN ZAMAN

Benedict is certainly very different from his predecessors, not only in his beliefs and the way he interprets theology, but in his style too. He has two important aims: to unite Europe as an essentially Christian entity, and to prevent Christianity suffering a massive loss of credibility.

Here is a translation of an editorial by ASCA, the Italian news agency, shared with us by Lella in the main forum:

Tomorrow, Benedict XVI begins a much-awaited trip to Turkey. For him, it will be like a trial by fire.

For Christian and Muslim public opinion, it will be a benchmark of where this Pontificate wants to go on certain deeply felt questions: the inter-religious dialog, especially with Islam; the ecumenical dialog, especially with the orthodox churches; the dialog of cultures, especially between the Europe with an ancint Christian heritage and the Europe of other cultural roots of which Turkey, bridge between Europe and the Middle East (Asia), is the evident and pre-eminent example.

Turkey, in effect, has been lying in wait for Benedict, especially after the misunderstanding with the Islamic world that emerged unwittingly for him at the University of Regensburg. People are waiting to see how he will manage to reconcile truth and charity towards an interlocutor as difficult as Islam has proven to be for the entire Western world.

The trip - the fifth in his brief pontificate thus far - will put to the test the pastoral and diplomatic quality of the Ratzinger-Bertone team whose diplomatic savvy is so far unknown.

Despite all the anticipation and not a few concerns that have been blown up in the media - who emphasize every little sign of a possible objection or negative signal coming from Istanbul or Ankara - the Holy See has been giving its own signals seeking to reduce any tensions on the eve of the visit to an acceptable level.

Actually, even immediately following the Regensburg lecture, the Vatican has always shown itself watchful but not alarmed about the situation, and always proceeded from a certainty that the trip to Turkey would be made.

Therefore, it has never followed an all-too-easy alarmist attitude and has not taken the media bait by reacting to every tactical and diplomatic skirmish employed by the Turkish government which is ever aware that the Papal trip plays against the background of Turkey's pending bid to enter the European Union.

Perhaps it is safe to surmise that the Holy See also has known for some time - and therefore was not really surprised - about the possibility of the Pope's visit to the Blue Mosque and an airport meeting with the Turkish Prime Minister before the latter leaves for the NATO summit in Latvia - both of which have only just been confirmed.

The fact is that the diplomacy of the Holy See has never been as much concerned with form as with substance, especially when this involves the Pope's pastoral ministry itself and the possiblities of creating bridges for dialog.

OK, I understand that MSM's basic criterion for news is - what's controversial about it? If there's no inherent or underlying conflict in an event, it's not worth reporting. Therefore, in order to be able to report something, create the conflict, whip up the controversy.

As in the Pope's coming visit to the Ayasofya in Istanbul, which is how AP leads off thefollowing story, yet another tom-tom in the groundswell of media alarmism (as the preceding ASAC editorial terms it) that has blanketed this trip.


Pope to tread sensitive ground in Turkey
By BRIAN MURPHY
AP Religion Writer
Mon Nov 27, 2006


ISTANBUL, Turkey - No moment of Pope Benedict XVI's upcoming trip may be as closely watched as his walk through the majestic Haghia Sophia, a domed complex whose history spans Istanbul's stormy evolution from Christianity to Islam.

It's not the homage to early Christianity that has many Turks on edge, it's how Benedict could choose to pay his respects. Any gesture perceived as worship, even as simple as making the sign of the cross, could be viewed as a serious affront by his hosts and undermine the Vatican's attempts to rebuild good will with Turkey as a bridge to other Muslims nations.

[This is madness - for the Western media themselves to purvey this kind of thinking. Not that some Muslims - such as the fanatics who organized the 'rally of a million' that ended up with only 20,000 participants - would not think exactly that way, but after the demonstrators who were there the other day started their 'occupation' by praying, how can anyone - Muslim or Christian - suggest that any suggestion of prayer or worship by the Pope would be seen as an offense? Ayasofya is a museum now, no longer a mosque.]

"The pope is treading on very sensitive ground as soon as he enters Haghia Sofia," said Dogu Ergil, a professor of social and religious trends at Ankara University.

But it requires a sweeping view of Turkish attitudes to understand why.

Haghia Sophia — "Holy Wisdom" in Greek — rose from the ruins of an earlier church in the 6th century and now holds 15 centuries of religious and political history under its massive central dome and multicolored marble columns.

It was the architectural and spiritual marvel of Christian Byzantium until the city — then known as Constantinople — fell to Muslim forces in 1453. Crosses and other Christian symbols were defaced and it became one of the most renowned mosques of the expanding Ottoman Empire.

In 1935, it again was transformed — this time into the Ayasofya museum during the secular reforms of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, who built modern Turkey from the Ottoman ruins. Religious services are prohibited [But see story we posted earlier about a mosque that has 'accidentally' sprung up and prospered on the grounds of the museum!] and Benedict's visit Thursday is considered by Turkish officials as only sightseeing.

An open act of piety by the pontiff would likely enrage Turkish nationalists, who hold sway over the political and military establishment, as a perceived signal of Christian claims to the site and a challenge to Turkish sovereignty.

"The risk is that Benedict will send Turkey's Muslims and much of the Islamic world into paroxysms of fury if there is any perception that the pope is trying to re-appropriate a Christian center that fell to Muslims," said an editorial in Turkey's independent Vatan newspaper.
[This is just sheer paranoia, which is not even consistent with Turkey's current laws that do not recognize any rights for the religious minorities who are Turkish citizens. And even if the Pope may want, in his heart, to have the Orthodox patriarchate get back Ayasofya in time, it's certainly not on the agenda for now, and making the Sign of the Cross doesn't put it on the agenda.)

It's another complication amid many for Benedict during his four-day visit to Turkey beginning Tuesday.

On Sunday, more than 25,000 demonstrators filled a square in Istanbul to denounce the pope and his remarks in September in which he quoted a medieval Christian emperor describing the teachings of the Prophet Muhammad as "evil and inhuman."

Some placards made reference to the 1453 Islamic conquest of the city. One read: "Constantinople is forever Islamic."

Another sign featured a snake with two heads: one of Benedict and the other Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I, spiritual leader of the world's more than 250 million Orthodox Christians and caretaker of the vestiges of a once-flourishing Greek Orthodox community in Turkey.

[Have you seen how much the TV news programs are making of that demonstration of 20,000? How every sign (manufactured, mass-produced), every remark and slogan (ideological boilerplate), every little shout or chant (orchestrated, choreographed) is parsed an analyzed - without the least perspective. There were 20,000 demonstrators in a city of 14 million. I've heard no one TV reporter mention that, even as they keep their cameras tightly zoomed in on the mass of red flags and what-have-you, to create the impression that this was much much bigger than it really was. But the event screams CONFLICT, CONFRONTATION, CONTROVERSY, so they make it THE BIG NEWS.

They might have spent more time showing us - and educating us about - the Phanar, the Cathedral of St. George, Ayasofya itself and the Blue Mosque, or giving us an idea of what Ankara is like, for instance - all those backgrounders that decades ago were standard MUSTS when setting the context for a trip or an event in a foreign place.

Somehow, TV news has stopped doing that - the nearest they still get around to doing it are their little local reports during the Olympics. An important foreign trip by any VIP is an opportunity to educate the public about the place being visited - its culture, its history, its people, the geography even.

My God, the geography of Istanbul alone has everything to do with why it has been a strategic center for almost two centuries. Not to mention how stunning that geography is. But how much of it have we seen on the TV reports so far?]

The pontiff's pilgrimage to Istanbul is mostly about building stronger bonds with Orthodox churches, which split with the Vatican nearly 1,000 years ago over disputes including papal authority.

But Benedict also plans a brief stop at the 17th century Blue Mosque — which faces Haghia Sophia — as a "sign of respect" toward Muslims, said Vatican spokesman the Rev. Federico Lombardi.

There have been no discussions between the Vatican and Bartholomew's office on the protocol for Haghia Sophia, said the Rev. Frank Marangos, a spokesman for the ecumenical patriarchate. "We have no information on what the pope plans," he said.

Things have gone both ways on previous papal visits.

In 1967, Pope Paul VI dropped to his knees in prayer as stone-faced Turkish officials, including the foreign minister and a top general, looked on. But Pope John Paul II made no outward gestures of worship during his tour in 1979. [Very strange! I wonder what the considerations were. Navarro-Valls should tell us. It is surprising that it's the very reserved Papa Montini who was very spontaneous and dramatic, while Papa Wojtyla, who was never at a loss for the right gesture, apparently reined himself in! What will Benedict XVI do? I'm guessing he'll respectfully ask the Museum administrator and his official hosts to allow him a private moment - with no cameras - in front of the Cristos Pantokrator or the Deesis, one of the surviving great mosaic icons, at any rate!]

Last week, about 40 members of an ultranationalist party occupied Haghia Sophia, shouting "Allahu akbar!" — "God is great!" in Arabic — and kneeling to perform Islamic prayers.


And here is Reuters's view on the eve of the trip :

Muslim Turkey to greet Pope
amid anger, tight security
By Gareth Jones


ANKARA, Nov. 27 (Reuters) - Turkey greets Pope Benedict on Tuesday for a four-day official visit, but the welcome will be distinctly cool due to simmering Muslim anger over his comments on Islam and his past opposition to Ankara's EU ambitions.

Underlining the tensions, Benedict, on his first visit to a Muslim country since becoming Pontiff last year, will travel through the streets of Ankara and Istanbul in a closed car, not in the glass-sided "popemobile" usually used on papal trips.

Most Turks seem indifferent to the visit by the Pope, [this seems to be the first neutral, and probably true, observation so far about the whole country's attitude] who is spiritual leader of the world's 1.1 billion Roman Catholics, but security will be very tight with protests expected by a small but vociferous minority of Islamists and hardline nationalists.

"The Pope is head of the Catholic world and maintaining good ties between the Islamic world and the Catholic world is in everybody's interests," Ali Bardakoglu, Turkey's top Muslim official, told Reuters in a recent interview.

"Disagreeing with somebody does not mean we are not hospitable to that person," said Bardakoglu, who heads Ankara's religious affairs directorate, or Diyanet.

Benedict infuriated Muslims worldwide in September with a lecture that seemed to depict Islam as an irrational religion tainted with violence. He later expressed regret at the pain his comments caused but stopped short of a full apology.

More than 20,000 Muslim protesters rallied against the Pope's trip on Sunday in Istanbul, chanting "Pope don't come."

Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan, a devout Muslim, will hold brief talks with the Pope at Ankara airport on Tuesday before leaving for a NATO summit in Riga. He originally said he was too busy to see the Pope, sparking talk of a Turkish snub.

Even before becoming Pope, Benedict upset Turks by speaking out against their bid to join the European Union, citing religious and cultural differences. The Vatican now says it is not opposed to Turkish membership. [Cardinal Ratzinger was expressing his personal opinion in 2004. Vatican diplomacy is not based on the Pope's personal views.]

After talks in Ankara with President Ahmet Necdet Sezer and Bardakoglu, the Pope will visit a site near the Aegean port of Izmir where the Virgin Mary is reputed to have lived and died.

The main focus of his trip will be talks on Christian unity with Patriarch Bartholomew, Istanbul-based spiritual head of the world's 250 million Orthodox Christians. But in a gesture to Muslims, Benedict will also visit Istanbul's famous Blue Mosque.

One of the few Turks really keen to meet the Pope is Mehmet Ali Agca, the man who tried to assassinate Benedict's predecessor, John Paul II, in Rome in 1981.

Now serving a jail sentence in Istanbul for crimes committed in the 1970s, Agca said through his lawyer on Monday: "I (Mehmet Ali Agca) asked the Turkish government to release me for one day so that I can discuss theological issues with (the Pope)."

The authorities are not expected to grant his request.

[Imagine wasting so many lines on a convicted killer, would-be papal assassin, habitual liar and inveterate publicity hound like Agca! Discuss theology indeed! After all the filth he has tried to purvey about Ratzinger!]


The Financial Times of London has its say:


Turkish politicians head out of town
to avoid Pope’s visit
By Vincent Boland in Istanbul
Published: November 27 2006


A book called Attack on the Pope has made a sudden appearance on certain bookshelves of Turkey in the past few weeks. Subtitled Who will kill Benedict XVI in Istanbul? , the book describes how Pope Benedict XVI might be assassinated during his four-day visit to the country, which begins on Tuesday.

Sales of the book have been modest. Still, its publication is a sign of the suspicious and heated atmosphere surrounding both the man and the visit – the first by Benedict to a Muslim country since remarks he made about Islam and violence inflamed world opinion in September.

Turkey’s government, with its roots in political Islam, has been so discomfited by the visit that senior politicians, including Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the prime minister, have found urgent reasons to be out of the country for much of this week. There were signs on Monday that a brief rendezvous at Ankara airport would be arranged between Mr Erdogan and the Pope. But Turkish politicians are wary of being photographed, before a general election next year, with a public figure as unpopular among Turks as the head of the Roman Catholic Church.

“The government is simply afraid of the grassroots reaction,” said Sinan Ulgen, chairman of the Edam think-tank in Istanbul. The Pope is disliked not only for his controversial remarks, but because he is said to oppose Turkey’s bid to join the European Union, apparently on religious and cultural grounds.

Turks are also upset that the main purpose of the Pope’s visit is to meet Patriarch Bartholomew, spiritual leader of the world’s Greek Orthodox Christians. It is one of history’s ironic legacies that modern Turkey – overwhelmingly Muslim but officially secular – is home to the Orthodox Church, which has resided in Istanbul (formerly Constantinople) for 1,700 years, and to a host of biblical sites and smaller Christian churches.

Bartholomew complains that successive Turkish governments have confiscated his church’s property. His campaign for re-opening a seminary on an island in the Marmara Sea that was closed by the authorities in the 1970s has become a cause célèbre among his followers.

An enormous security operation is planned for Benedict’s visit. The trip will include stops in Ankara, Istanbul, and a site near the ancient ruins at Ephesus, in western Turkey. About 20,000 demonstrators marched through Istanbul on Sunday calling for the visit to be cancelled, but the protest was smaller than expected.

Still, his every word and gesture will be studied intently by Turks seeking to interpret his attitude towards their country and their religion. For that reason, some commentators said, it was important that Mr Erdogan and other leaders engaged him in a dialogue on their territory.

For him to fail to meet the Pope would be “a huge missed opportunity for this government,” said Cengiz Aktar, an Istanbul academic.

[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 28/11/2006 3.01]

Here is a surprisingly benign and objective editorial in the Times of London.

Constantinople Revisited:
A papal visit to Turkey
will be a test of diplomatic skills
The Times
November 27, 2006


The Pope arrives in Istanbul tomorrow at the start of a four-day visit that is as delicate and controversial as any undertaken by a pontiff in recent decades.

His ostensible purpose is to make a pilgrimage to sites of Christian significance and to meet the Ecumenical Patriarch of the Orthodox Church, Bartholomew, to discuss ways of bringing the world's one billion Roman Catholics and 250 million Orthodox Christians closer together.

But the underlying aim is to repair the Vatican's fractured relations with Islam, which are more a result of overreaction than anything the Pope himself has said.

He will have a hard task. The Pope has become caught up in campaigns by Muslim extremists and Turkish nationalists alike. The Turkish Prime Minister and Foreign Minister have snubbed his visit, pleading the need to attend a Nato summit in Riga. [Obviously this was written before Erdogan's change of plans.] More than 20,000 demonstrators marched through Istanbul at the weekend, denouncing the Pope as an enemy of Islam.

Across the Muslim world, religious leaders have seized, absurdly, on his citation of a late Byzantine emperor's criticism of Islam to accuse the Vatican of encouraging a new crusade.

Most of the uproar has been instigated by Islamists determined to take offence and to use the incident to incite Muslims against the West. They have played on the growing paranoia within the Muslim world and the anger with Western policies in the Middle East, Iraq and Afghanistan to portray Pope Benedict XVI as a determined opponent — an ahistorical interpretation that overlooks, for example, that Saddam Hussein was a determined enemy of Islam.

To his credit, the Pope has refused to engage in polemics. Turning a cheek, he has expressed regret that his remarks have caused offence, stepped up efforts to engage moderate Muslim leaders and underlined his respect for Islam.

To its credit, Turkey has rejected calls to cancel the visit. But it has been made doubly controversial by Benedict's opposition, voiced before becoming Pope, to Turkey's membership of the European Union, saying it did not belong there because of its religion and culture.

He arrives as the tortuous accession talks have reached a crisis point and when public opinion is angered at what it sees as a stream of concessions by the Government in Ankara and legal changes demanded by EU negotiators. This has spurred a virulent nationalism that denounces all attempts to integrate with the West.

On the EU issue, the Pope is mistaken, and should at least signal that he does not believe the two cultures are fundamentally incompatible.

The Pope has been made a scapegoat for much unfocused frustration. Although a determinedly secular state, Turkey was for 500 years the seat of the Caliphate, and is feeling the pressure of Islamic revivalism among its neighbours and within its own borders.

This has made Benedict's meeting with Bartholomew equally controversial. The Ecumenical Patriarch is primus inter pares within the community of Orthodox churches, but in Turkey his position is precarious. Christians there number only a few thousand, and suffer increasing harassment, including prosecutions for attempted prosyletising and concocted charges against Muslim converts to Christianity.

After a split of more than 1,000 years, any rapprochement with Orthodoxy will be testing. To achieve this against a background of rising Muslim suspicion will demand all Benedict's tact, adroitness and humility.

From a site called Spero News, this article was identified as a news analysis. Its chief value is as a a compendium of the reaction in the Muslim world to the Regensburg citation and Islamic extremists' reaction in Turkey to the Pope's visit.


Islamist threats cast
shadow over Pope's visit
Monday, November 27, 2006
By Adrian Morgan


Tomorrow, on November 28, Pope Benedict XVI will be making his first visit to a Muslim country when he arrives in Turkey. He will be staying until December 1. His visit will be viewed with interest by Muslims, Christians and non-Muslims alike.

As Janet Daley writes in the Telegraph: "When Pope Benedict XVI flies to Turkey tomorrow, he will embody the most potentially incendiary confrontation between Islam and the West since the defeat of the Turks at Vienna in 1683 brought an end to Islamic conquest in Europe."

Background of Benedict's visit

The speech of Benedict XVI's address to Regensburg University on September 12, in which he called for a dialogue between Islam and Christianity, was widely seen by Muslims as an insult to their religion.

Even though he cogently argued for faith to be tempered by reason, Benedict had also quoted from Byzantine emperor Manuel II Paleologus, who in around 1391 had said "show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached."

He condemned violence associated with religion, saying: "Violence is incompatible with the nature of God and the nature of the soul."

Benedict's forthright statements were never fully retracted, even though he apologized if any Muslims had taken offense. He invited about 20 Muslim representatives to Castel Gandolfo, his summer palace, on September 25.

Here, he reiterated some of his Regensburg address, such as: "In a world marked by relativism and too often excluding the transcendence and universality of reason, we are in great need of an authentic dialogue between religions and between cultures, capable of assisting us, in a spirit of fruitful co-operation, to overcome all the tensions together."

He reminded his audience of the words of John Paul II, his predecessor, who had said: "Respect and dialogue require reciprocity in all spheres."

Importantly, Benedict XVI mentioned the lack of religious freedom Christians have in Muslim countries.

By that time, Muslims had rampaged in Gaza, where several churches were attacked and a prominent cleric, Sheikh Abu Saqer, said that the green flag of Islam would soon be fluttering above the Vatican, and called the pontiff a "little racist".

Din Syamsuddin, chairman of Muhammadiyah, the second largest Islamic association in Indonesia, which has 30 million members, had said: "The pope's statements reflect his lack of wisdom. It is obvious from the statements that the pope doesn't have a correct understanding of Islam."

In Pakistan, demonstrations had been made throughout the nation. On September 21 at Lahore, Punjab province, clerics issued a joint statement, which said that Benedict XVI should be removed for "encouraging war and fanning hostility between various faiths" and "making insulting remarks" against Islam.

The declaration by Pakistani imams and scholars said the "Pope, and all infidels, should know that no Muslim, under any circumstances, can tolerate an insult to Prophet Muhammad (PBUH)...If the West does not change its stance regarding Islam, it will face severe consequences."

On Sunday September 17, the British Islamist Anjem Choudary led a demonstration of fanatics outside Westminster Abbey, in which Choudary declared that the Pope should be executed for "insulting" Islam.

A few days before the Castel Gandolfo meeting, Sister Leonella Sgorbati was shot in the back three times in a hospital in Somalia on September 16. The Islamists of Somalia claimed she had been killed as a reaction to Benedict's Regensburg address. At Castel Gandolfo, Benedict reminded his Muslim visitors that the last words on Sister Leonella's lips were "forgiveness".

Forgiveness is not a quality usually associated with Muslims who feel their faith has been "insulted". At Regensburg, in the university at which he had formerly taught, the Pope had spoken of violent jihad as "ungodly". Muslim extremists seemed prepared to prove him right.

The clerics who had issued a declaration in Lahore, condemning the Pope, also called for Hafiz Muhammad Saeed, founder of both Jamaat ud Dawa and the terrorist group Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) to be released from house arrest. Shortly after his Castel Gandolfo meeting, Jamaat ud Dawa issued a fatwa against Benedict, which included the following:

Pakistan's Jamaat-ud-Dawa has issued a Fatwa asking the Muslim community to kill Pope Benedict for his blasphemous statement about Prophet Mohammad. The Jamaat-ud-Dawa has declared death to Pope Benedict and said that in today's world blasphemy of the Holy Koran and the Prophet has become a fashion.

Jamaat ud Dawa is designated by the US as a terrorist organization, even though Pakistan refuses to outlaw the group.

In May, a US Christian missionary group released film of Islamists linked to Al Qaeda, who were using the headquarters of Jamaat-ud-Dawah in Mudrike, near Lahore, to traffick young Christian boys who had been kidnapped. These boys, imprisoned in chains, were kidnapped to be sold as slaves to gangs, who used them to gain money by begging.

On Friday, September 15, a Christian had been killed in Baghdad, apparently in response to Benedict's speech. In many Baghdad mosques, a poster was placed by a previously unknown group calling itself "Kataab Ashbal Al Islam Al Salafi", the Islamic Salafist Boy Scout Battalions. The posters said the group would kill all the Christians in Iraq if Benedict did not apologize for his comments.

On Monday, October 9, a Syriac-Orthodox priest, Father Paulos Iskander (Alexander), was kidnapped in Mosul, Iraq. His kidnappers demanded that notices be posted on Father Alexander's church door, apologizing for Benedict's speech, before any negotiations for release could begin. On Wednesday, Father Alexander's head was removed by his Muslim captors and his body dumped. A fourteen-year old boy was also crucified ("impaled") in the Christian neighborhood of Albasra.

On September 16, Turkey's Islamist prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan of the AKP (Justice & Development) party, criticized the Pope's Regensburg speech. He said: "The Pope spoke like a politician, not like a man of religion...In an era when a dialogue has been initiated between religions, values and civilisations, it is very unfortunate that these remarks have been made against Islam." He hinted that it would be unwise for Benedict to visit Turkey.

Earlier, Turkey's leading Islamic cleric, Ali Bardakoglu, head of the Religious Affairs Directorate, had condemned the Pope's Regensburg speech. He had said on Thursday, September 14, two days after the speech, that the Pontiff's comments were "extraordinarily worrying, saddening and unfortunate."

He said that if the Pope's words reflected the "spite, hatred and enmity" of others in the Christian world, then the situation was much worse. Bardakoglu said the speech had been full of "emnity and grudges".

Bardakoglu suggested that Benedict should not visit Turkey. He said: "I do not think any good will come from a visit to the Muslim world by a person who has such ideas."

Since then, Erdogan, who had earlier said that he would not be able to meet Benedict, because of a prior engagement at a NATA summit in Riga, arranged months before, has said that he will be meeting the Pope. He warned that "whoever comes here must show respect for the Prophet Muhammad."

Ali Bardakoglu has also softened his stance, and he will be meeting the Pontiff on his visit. "Even if we don't agree with them, we always host our guests in a civilized manner," he said.

The Pope is also scheduled to meet Ahmet Necdet Sezer, the secularist president of Turkey.

Reactions within Turkey

The Pope's visit will also take in Ankara, the administrative capital, and also Istanbul, where he will visit the Blue Mosque. Benedict will briefly meet Erdogan at Ankara airport, and he will spend his first night at the Holy See embassy in Ankara.

He will visit the Mausoleum of Kemal Ataturk, also at Ankara. Benedict will also visit a tiny shrine, said to be the place where Mary, the mother of Christ, lived out out her final years. This shrine, which I have visited, is a small building, the House of Mary, nestled amongst olive trees on a hillside above the ruins of the city of Ephesus, where St Paul preached in the library. This beautiful location, formerly a port before it became landlocked, is near the city of Izmir on the west coast.

The Pope is expected to make mention of the murder of Father Andrea Santoro, who was shot in the back by a Muslim teenager on Sunday February 5, at his church, Santa Maria, in Trabzon, on the Black Sea coast in the east of Turkey. The 16-year old killer shouted "Allahu Akbar" as he shot Father Santoro.

Santa Maria Church was built in the 19th century during the reign of the Ottoman Sultan Abdulmejid I. Father Santoro had just finished holding Sunday Mass when he was murdered.

The incident happened as the Muslim world exploded in anger at the Danish cartoons of the "prophet" Mohammed, in violence which saw around 50 people losing their lives.

Shortly after the shooting of Father Santoro in February, a Slovenian priest was seized by the throat by young Turkish nationalists, and thrown into a garden in the city of Izmir, on the Aegean coast. The assailants were shouting "We will kill you!" and "Allahu Akbar" (Allah is Great).

Also in Izmir, a church was hit with a small firebomb thrown at its roof. The arsonist said he was outraged by the Danish cartoons. On July 2, Father Santoro's temporary replacement, French priest Father Brunissen, was stabbed in the leg in the town of Samsun, west of Trabzon.

Primed with anger by the Danish cartoons and the Regensburg address, extremist Muslims in Turkey have been making their protests known. Some have issued death threats. But radical Muslims are not the only Turks to be against Benedict's visit.

Ultra-nationalists, loyal to the secular and independent Turkey created by Kemal Ataturk in 1923, have also been voicing their concerns. On Wednesday (November 22), 40 members of an ultra-nationalist group, the Grey Wolves, made a protest at the Haghia Sofia mosque. They were dispersed with tear gas.

Haghia Sofia, formerly a Christian church before it became a mosque, is the center of its own controversies. Benedict had earlier planned on visiting this building, but it has since been removed from his itinerary. [Of course not!]

Last month, as Archbishop Pierlugi Celata, former papal ambassador to Turkey, was scouting the city of Istanbul in preparation for Benedict's visit, a man lunged at him. At the start of this month, a man fired a gun outside the Italian consulate in Istanbul, protesting the visit of the Pontiff.

From his prison, Mehmet Ali Agca, the man who tried to kill John Paul II in 1981, warned that an attempt will be made upon Benedict's life.

Concerns for the Pope's safety have been so intense that the Vatican has forbidden the use of the famous "popemobile". Benedict will instead travel in an armored car, and other vehicles of an identical nature will also be used as decoys. Benedict will be wearing a bullet-proof vest during his visit.

In Istanbul, the head of police, Celalettin Cerrah, has said that the city would have maximum security, and he would call on other cities' police forces if needed.

The Pope will be meeting with the Orthodox leader, Bartholomew I, the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople on St Andrew's Day (November 30). The formerly Byzantine Patriarchate has existed in Istanbul long before the time when the Ottomans conquered Istanbul in 1453. The Ottomans allowed the Ecumenical (the word means "universal") Patriarchate to continue under their rule.

Necmettin Erbakan, the leader of the Islamist Saadet (Happiness or Contentment) Party (SP) has scorned Erdogan for bothering to meet the Pontiff, accusing him of wanting to kiss the hand of the man who, along with Patriarch Barlolomeos, is intending to try to re-establish Byzantium.

The Saadet Party yesterday held a massive rally in Istanbul, attended by 20,000 people. Though in the last elections Saadet gained only 1.2% of the vote, they have grand ambitions to be seen as the protectors of Islam within Turkey. They laid on 2,000 coaches for yesterday's rally [so if the buses were used at all, they had at most 10 people per bus!], and claimed they would attract 1 million people. Among the crowd were also Turkish nationalists, who demanded an end to the "Crusader Alliance".

Vatican sources have claimed that ahead of his visit, Pope Benedict XVI is both "worried" and "hopeful". His worries stem from the fear that protests could end up politicizing the visit, and diminishing its ecumenical value.

He is said to be optimistic that his visit will strengthen relations between the Catholic and Orthodox church, and is said to be strengthened by "expressions of appreciation from Orthodox Christians".

Adrian Morgan is a British based writer and artist who has written for Western Resistance since its inception. He has previously contributed to various publications, including the Guardian and New Scientist and is a former Fellow of the Royal Anthropological Society.

A German friend sent me this photo. It was on the front page of at least one German newspaper this week. I wish people would stop linking Papa to the Crusades. Sorry, I don't know what the caption says.

[Modificato da benefan 28/11/2006 5.05]

Turkish Protests Seem to Boomerang

Says Bishop Padovese, Apostolic Vicar of Anatolia

ANKARA, Turkey, NOV. 27, 2006 (Zenit.org).- Sunday's protests in Turkey against Benedict XVI have had a "boomerang" effect, increasing the public's interest in the upcoming papal visit, says Bishop Luigi Padovese, apostolic vicar of Anatolia.

"All the preparations for the meeting with the Holy Father have ended," the bishop told ZENIT today. "Sunday's demonstrations in Istanbul and Bursa have had a boomerang effect for those who sought a mass protest.

"They have served, on the contrary, to attract greater interest in public opinion for the Holy Father's visit and at the same time have confirmed the common sense of the people of the street above the hybrid and not-sizable coalition of nationalist and Islamic protesters."

According to Bishop Padovese, "It is significant that all the most important national newspapers that have reported the demonstration also referred to the words the Pope uttered on Sunday during the Angelus." In that address, the Pope expressed his esteem and affection for the Turkish people.

The apostolic vicar confirmed the change of politicians' position, who are now more open to the visit.

"This change has helped to calm the tensions of past weeks," the prelate said. "It is seen clearly that the eyes of the world are now focused on Turkey and it is a unique opportunity to show the country's democratic and civil face.

"Now all we can do is pray that all goes well. From the testimonies I have received, I believe it is the first time that there is so much prayer for a trip of the Pope."

Papa as a Crusader! I must say the way they placed his face inside the headgear was neatly done. The caption simply says:
"Two days before the Papal visit to Turkey, 10,000 Turks demonstrated yesterday in Istanbul against Benedict XVI. The demonstrators caried a giant caricature of the Pope as a Crusader Kinght with sword and hatchet. The 4-day visit, according to Ankara, will have the same security measures as those taken for President Bush two years ago."


P.S. I found this picture in Spiegel online:
So! the caricature has that giant 'APOLOGIZE'under it!

The second caricature shows B16 and B1 as the two heads of a snake.

[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 28/11/2006 6.54]