Pope’s Turkey visit to decide shape of Vatican-Muslim ties
By Ian Traynor
ISTANBUL: St Sophia's is a place of dizzying magnificence. One of the most sacred sites in Christendom for the best part of a millennium, made over into the sultans' mosque of choice for almost 500 years, the Byzantine masterpiece today is a museum that testifies to centuries of feuding between Christianity, Islam, and secularism. So when Pope Benedict XVI takes to the Istanbul tourist trail next Thursday to admire the mosaics under the soaring dome of the sixth century basilica, it will be the most delicate moment of the most sensitive trip the 79-year-old Bavarian has ever made.
Four days in Turkey will pitch the pontiff into the eye of the storm he churned up in September when he linked Islam and holy Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) with violence and inhumanity.
And the eight minutes he is to spend in the cavernous St Sophia's on Thursday afternoon will be watched and weighed for signals of the Vatican's true intent towards Turkey and, more crucially, the world's Muslims.
Will the pontiff pray at the place the Turks call Ayasofya, that the Greeks know as Haghia Sophia? Will he genuflect? Or quietly re-consecrate the shrine? He is likely, say those in the know, to cross himself as he enters the museum. 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 centre that fell to the Muslims in 1453 when Byzantine Constantinople became Ottoman Istanbul.
"This is not a mosque. This is not a church. This is a museum," said an Ayasofya official. "There can be no religious services here."
"It won't be good if he prays here. It will offend our people," said Mehmet Tayyar Kaya, a Turkish Muslim visiting the shrine with his wife and son. An indication of the tension over St Sophia's came earlier this week when a group of young nationalists "occupied" the basilica before being dispersed by police. "And if he crosses himself? So what," said Father Dositheos Anagnostopulos of the Orthodox Christian patriarchate in Istanbul. "God's temple is in man's heart -- that's more important than old stones and old buildings."
The St Sophia dilemma is but one illustration of the challenge facing Benedict as he seeks in the days ahead to navigate the treacherous front line between Christianity and Islam. An old man in a young papacy, he delivered the most unfortunate speech of his 19 months as Pope at a Bavarian university 10 weeks ago. Willy-nilly, he nourished the hopes and prejudices of those who see in the post-9/11 world a "clash of civilisations" between Islam and the West.
In the wake of the Danish cartoons crisis, in the midst of the conflicts in Iraq, Afghanistan and the Palestinian territories, at a time of European handwringing over how to deal with large Muslim minorities, the Islamic world erupted in outrage at the Pope's insult to the Prophet. Turkey's top cleric demanded an apology. Since the September speech Benedict has repeatedly voiced regret for any offence he caused. But he has not retracted his remarks.
The result is that as the papal entourage prepares to arrive first in Ankara on Tuesday, before moving on to Izmir and Istanbul, the Vatican appears to be on the defensive, while Turkey and the Islamic world are suspicious and hostile. The banks of the Bosphorus are plastered with banners declaring: "We don't want the Pope in Turkey." The Turk who tried to assassinate Benedict's predecessor, John Paul II, in 1981, has warned from a Turkish prison cell that Benedict's life is in danger. Shots have been fired outside the Italian consulate in Istanbul; a plane was hijacked in a papal protest. Tens of thousands of anti-Pope protesters are expected to converge on an Istanbul field on Sunday.
The potential for trouble is high, the security operation is immense -- gunboats on the Bosphorus, snipers galore, decoy pope-mobiles. The Turkish government insists Benedict is welcome, but at one time was having trouble fielding high-level figures to meet him. Recep Tayyip Erdogan originally had a pressing engagement elsewhere, but last night a government official said Turkey's prime minister was hoping to meet the Pope on his arrival in the country after all.
Kemal Kerincsiz, a key organiser of the "Stop Benedict" movement, said: "The Pope coming here is an affront to our national sovereignty. And the worst thing is his insults about Islam and the Prophet." Mr Kerincsiz is leader of the ultra-nationalist Lawyers' Union which, when not trying to impede the Pope, is campaigning to jail writers like the Nobel laureate Orhan Pamuk for peacefully voicing their opinions about Turkey.
His office is hung with posters depicting the Pope and Bartholomew I, the Istanbul-based Ecumenical Patriarch of 250 million Orthodox Christians worldwide, as a double-headed serpent. "Who's complaining about freedom of expression now?" he says, grinning.While Turkey is nervous about the papal visit and things could turn ugly, it is more likely that traditional Turkish hospitality will prevail, provided Benedict is diplomatically deft enough to keep his balance on the Turkish tightrope.
Istanbul's 530-year-old Fatih mosque is generally seen as the national stronghold of strict traditional Islam. The sprawling grounds of the complex were on Friday littered with flyers summoning the faithful to anti-Pope protest.
But several men interviewed going into Friday prayers were generous in welcoming Benedict and keen to give him the “benefit of the doubt.” "I don't agree with all these posters," said Ali Enuk, 40. "He knows how important Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) is for the Muslims and he wouldn't insult us. He's a great religious leader. He should come here."
Cevat Gulumser, 23, invoked an old Turkish expression of hospitality: "We welcome him on to our heads and eyes. I won't be going to the protest."
The chances are that Benedict will be seeking to mend fences. But while Muslims will be measuring his every word, the Turkish establishment is more likely to get a polite earful when it comes to Europe and to touchy issues of religious freedom -- Vatican code for the alleged persecution of Christians in Turkey.
Istanbul, as the former capital of Byzantium, has also been the seat of Orthodox Christianity for 1,700 years. Bartholomew I, a 65-year-old Turkish Greek, is the symbolic head of world Orthodoxy and fears for the future of his church in Turkey. For Turkish nationalists, Bartholomew is a Greek agent bent on weakening and splitting up Turkey. The Turkish government refuses to restore an old Orthodox seminary to Bartholomew, bans the training of Orthodox priests and refuses residence or work permits for Orthodox clergy coming into Turkey from outside.
For Benedict and the Vatican, Christianity rather than Islam is the point of his visit, an attempt to invigorate the "dialogue" between the main western and eastern variants of Christianity which split in the great schism of the 11th century. There are also some 30,000 Roman Catholics in Turkey, a congregation the Vatican claims is discriminated against.
Anticipating the row, Ali Bardakoglu, the government bureaucrat and Muslim cleric who oversees the 100,000 imams and other employees in Turkey's mosques, told Reuters: "If the Pope says Christians in Turkey are mistreated, I will tell him that he has been seriously misinformed."
But if Turkey's difficult relationship with Europe and the fate of Christians in Turkey are the key issues for the Ankara government and for the Vatican, the impact of Benedict's biggest trip will hinge on the gestures he makes towards Islam. The Vatican announced last night that the Pope was considering a brief stop at Istanbul's Blue Mosque as "a sign of respect" after his visit to St Sophia's.
"We're not against what he represents. We're against him personally for what he said," said Mr Gulumser at the Fatih mosque. "If he makes bridges and makes peace, we will respect and like that." —Dawn/The Guardian News Service
