Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan will meet Pope Benedict XVI during his trip to Turkey this week, after a late change of plan while Ahead of the Pope’s visit to Turkey, the Vatican sent out conciliatory signals....
Pope visit highlights opinion rifts over Turkey's role in Europe; As thousands of Muslims protest against this week's visit by Pope Benedict XVI to Turkey, the Vatican's chief spokesman in Istanbul has told EUobserver the Muslim country belongs in Europe and opposition towards it is based on fear of the unknown.
Welcome to Islamdom, Your Holiness [An open letter to Pope Benedict XVI., to be published in Turkish Daily News by Mustafa Akyol]
The State of Religious Liberty in Turkey; Interview With R.M.T. Schmid of the Becket Institute
Prof. Isen will be regularly posting on the Papal visit:
pope benedictus xvi is slated to visit visit turkey "officially" tomorrow. since he is a "head of state", too, that is supposed to be an "official" state visit to president ahmet n. sezer but benedictus xvi is also coming as an invitee of his orthodox quasi-counterpart, patriarch bartholomeos 1. if you ask me, o kyrios bartholomeos is the best and ablest politician alive in turkey - though that is for another posting. suffice now to say, this double invitiation also leads to a load of political double entendre. o kyrios bartholomeos is and has been a persistent headache in turkey's limited-scope global vision..........
turk is better than the pope: my buddy john karkazis of the panepistemiou aegeo views the pope's visit as a latter day gambit by the holy see to devour the shrunken orthodox church into the bigger belly of the vatican. the current pope, as every single other pope since the 4th century, thrives on the hope of uniting christianity! quite a few councils have convened to bring about a reunion of orthodox and catholic christianity since the great schism over the filioque issue, namely, whether the spritus sancti proceeds from both god the father and jesus the son, or just from the father.
Dossier of Monday, November 27, 2006; The Pope's perilous visit to Turkey
Benedict XVI is expected in Turkey on Tuesday, November 28th, for a four-day visit. It has been two months since Turkey harshly criticised the Pope for including in a speech certain historical references considered offensive to the Muslim religion. The press ponders the scope of this trip that should also allow Benedict XVI to tighten links between Roman and Orthodox Churches.