VATICAN: POPE’S VISIT TO TURKEY OFFICIALLY CONFIRMED

AKI, Italy
Oct 16 2006

Vatican City, 16 Oct. (AKI) – The Vatican officially confirmed
on Monday Pope Benedict XVI’s trip to Turkey, his first to an
Muslim-majority country since becoming pontiff in April last year.

The pope will travel to Ankara on 28 November on a four-day trip
during which he will be visiting the western coastal city of Izmir,
Ephesus and Istanbul, the Vatican announced. The Vatican said in a
statement Monday that the programme of the papal visit will announced
at a later date.

However, as the official guest of Turkey’s president Ahmet Necdet
Sezer, the pontiff is expected to visit the Anitkabir, the mausoloeum
of the founder of modern Turkey, Kemal Ataturk. He will also meet
Sezer at the presidential palace, Cankaya Kosk, in Ankara.

Benedict XVI is also widely expected to visit a shrine at Ephesus,
near the western coastal city of Izmir, where many Christians and
Muslims believe that Mary, the mother of Jesus, once lived.

The pope should also reportedly celebrate on 30 November in
Istanbul the feast of Saint Andrew with the Ecumenical Patriarch of
Constantinople Bartholomew I and the Armenian patriarch, Mesrob II –
the two leaders of Turkey’s tiny Christian community.