BY SEMIH IDIZ
MILLIYET- It seems that Pope Benedict XVI's visit to Turkey will be troubled, and the government is experiencing uneasy days due to this visit. Some people say that it comes from the Justice and Development Party's (AKP) unhappiness with this visit. According to the latest news, negative interpretations in the West of this situation caused Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan to belatedly schedule a meeting with him during the visit. But it's not certain if this will happen or not. We can see the visit is worrying the government as well. The main reason for this is the pope's visit to Patriarch Bartholomeos. If the state could, it would block the visit. But it can't. The reason is very clear: The whole world will pay attention to this visit. Ankara knows that such an action would damage Turkey's international image and so would be more serious than the drawbacks of the pope-Bartholomeos meeting. So why is the visit being paid? Firstly, let me remind you of something. The pope was supposed to come to Turkey last year at Bartholomeos' invitation for St. Andreas day, the holiest day of the Orthodox church. As the head of the Catholic world, his aim was to meet with 'ecumenical' leaders of the Greek Orthodox world and continue the process of rapprochement between the Eastern and Western churches.
Meanwhile, although we say the opposite, the world considers Patriarch Bartholomeos to be the ecumenical leader of the Greek Orthodox Church. Ankara, which was disturbed that Bartholomeos invited the pope, sent a state invitation on behalf of Turkey to the pope. As he wouldn't be able to reject the state's invitation, the pope accepted it but postponed his meeting with Bartholomeos. In other words, Ankara faced a visit that it never wanted. Meanwhile, new dynamics emerged and this visit started to gain new meanings. The pope opened his mouth and enraged the Muslim world. Erdogan himself made some of the harshest criticisms. So the pope's visit to Turkey took on a meaning of `creating consensus between civilizations.' However, for that the pope shouldn't be meeting with President Ahmet Necdet Sezer, but Erdogan, who is considered the `leading Muslim politician in Europe,' so that it would be meaningful. If Turkey had been a normal country, the pope would have been received at the Presidential Palace in Cankaya, and Erdogan, the Religious Affairs Directorate head, the Greek and Armenian patriarchs and the Jewish chief rabbi would have been invited to the banquet given in his honor. This way Turkey's secular character would have been emphasized and it would have promoted interfaith tolerance. But since this didn't happen, now I can only hope Ankara will come through this visit without any problems.