Turkish PM to skip pope meeting

By JOHN L. ALLEN JR.
New York

In late September, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan told reporters that when Pope Benedict XVI visits his country later this month, he would “set him straight” with regard to his views on Islam.

In the event, however, Erdogan has decided to forgo delivering a theology lesson to Joseph Ratzinger, deciding to attend a NATO summit in Estonia instead while the pope is in town. Erdogan's absence means that Benedict XVI will face the rare circumstance of visiting a foreign nation without being welcomed by its head of government.

The Turkish Embassy to the Holy See made the announcement this week.

Though Turkey is officially a secular state, Erdogan’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) has its roots in political Islam, and many observers believe that Erdogan decided to snub the pope out of fear of antagonizing hard-liners still offended by Benedict’s Sept. 12 comments on Mohammed and Islam in Regensburg, Germany.

Turkey faces elections next year, and all indications are that Islamic movements are a rising force in the country’s affairs.

While Turkey is often singled out as a model of a moderate Islamic state, Erdogan’s reaction in the wake of the Regensburg address was among the most ferocious among leading Muslim politicians.

“I believe it is a must for the Pope to retract his erroneous, ugly and unfortunate remarks and apologise both to the Islamic world and Muslims,” Erdogan said at the time in a televised address to the nation.

“The pope spoke not like a man of religion but like a usual politician,” Erdogan said. “We hope that he will correct his error immediately and avoid casting a shadow over (efforts) to develop dialogue between faiths.”

After Benedict XVI apologized on Sept. 17 for any hurt his words may have caused, and stressed that his quotation from a 14th century Byzantine emperor that Mohammed brought things “only evil and inhuman” in no way reflected his personal opinion, Erdogan called the act of contrition a “maneuver,” and said it fell short of the apology Muslims deserved.

Erdogan’s decision to bow out of meeting the pope is another indication of the tough climate that Benedict may face on his Nov. 28-Dec. 2 trip to Turkey, his first to a majority Muslim nation.

Following his Regensburg remarks, one group of Turkish clerics, backed by a lawmaker from Erdogan’s party, actually demanded that the pope be arrested when he arrives on Turkish soil.

Members of Diyanet-Sen, an imans’ union with the country’s Religious Affairs Directorate, asked authorities to to detain him when he arrives. They said the pontiff had violated Turkish laws upholding freedom of belief and thought by “insulting” Islam and the Prophet Mohammed.

Turkish officials confirmed this week that Benedict will meet President Sezer and Ali Bardakoglu, head of the Religious Affairs Directorate and the leading cleric in the country.