TURKEY: SHARPSHOOTERS AND SECURITY CAMERAS FOR POPE’S ISTANBUL VISIT

AKI, Italy
Nov 16 2006

Istanbul, 16 Nov. (AKI) – Authorities in Istanbul say they will deploy
police sharpshooters on rooftops and install closed circuit television
surveillance cameras during Pope Benedict XVI’s scheduled visit to the
city on 30 November, part of his historic visit to Turkey. Benedict
will celebrate 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.

The pope will stay at a church residence near the Cathedral of the
Holy Spirit and authorities say that police will carry out checks on
people moving in and around the vicinity of the building.

While people will be able to protest against the pope’s visit –
a possibility since Benedict angered many Muslims with comments he
made on Islam in September – such gatherings will only be allowed at
places determined by the police.

Police will also monitor groups suspected to be hostile to the pope,
such as an ultra-nationalist lawyer’s group behind a series of court
cases against intellectuals, including new Nobel Literature Prize
winner Orhan Pamuk, for saying that the Muslim Ottoman authorities
planned genocide against Christian Armenians in the early 20th century.

A total of 4,000 police will be tasked with protecting the pope and
wellwishers during the Istanbul leg of the visit, Benedict’s first
to an overwhelmingly Muslim populated country since becoming pope in
April last year.