Zaman Online, Turkey
Nov 23 2006
Erdogan and Gul will not Meet Pope
By Suleyman Kurt, Ankara
Thursday, November 23, 2006
zaman.com
Details of the pontiff’s itinerary, from November 28 to December 1,
are being defined.
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Foreign Minister
Abdullah Gul will not be able to meet the Pope, so State Minister
Mehmet Ali Sahin will host him.
The Pope will be in Ankara on Oct. 28 and visit the mausoleum of
Kemal Ataturk.
He will then meet Turkish President Ahmet Necdet Sezer at the
presidential residence.
Then State Minister Mehmet Ali Sahin will meet Pope at Camli Kosk.
Erdogan and Gul will be at a NATO summit in Riga on the same day.
Ankara inquired if the Pope’s visit could have taken place one or two
days later as Erdogan and Gul were previously scheduled for the NATO
summit.
This offer was not accepted by the Vatican but it assured Ankara that
this would not create a diplomatic problem.
Spokesman for the Foreign Ministry, Namik Tan emphasized this and
added that Mehmet Ali Sahin would meet the Pope on behalf of Erdogan.
Abdullah Gul offered to organize a dinner in Istanbul on his return
from Riga; however, this offer was rejected by the Vatican. The Pope
explained that his Istanbul visit was special and preferred to keep
his activities purely spiritual.
The pontiff will meet the Greek Patriarch Bartholomeos I, Patriarch
of Turkish-Armenians Mesrob Mutafyan II, and Chief Rabbi Ishak Haleva
in Istanbul.
The Pope will also meet Turkish Director of Religious Affairs Ali
Bardakoglu in Ankara.