ITALIAN MEDIA BESEECHES POPE NOT TO GO TO TURKEY IN NOVEMBER

Hurriyet, Turkey
September 18, 2006 13:39

Following the controversy over words spoken on Islam by Pope Benedict
in Germany, Italian newspapers are beseeching the leader of the
Catholic church not to go ahead with his planned November visit to
Turkey. This week the Italian "Libero" newspaper carried an article
asserting "Ratzinger don’t go to Turkey! Your life is in danger due
to fanatics and the made-up stories of the media. They have declared
war against you. They want to kill you!"

The same "Libero" newspaper wrote this week that Turkey had "massacred
1.5 million Armenians," and also recalled the murder earlier in the
year of Priest Andrea Santoro in the Black Sea city of Trabzon.

Meanwhile, the Italian "Corriere della Sera" newspaper carried an
article this weekend noting that the Pope, if he did visit Turkey
in November, might not in fact meet with the Turkish head of the
Religious Affairs Ministry, Ali Bardarkoglu. One of the staunchest
critics of the Pope over the past week has been Bardakoglu, who has
called for the Pope’s immediate apology for his Islam comments.