By IAN FISHER and SABRINA TAVERNISE
The New York Times
ANKARA, Turkey, Nov. 28 — Pope Benedict XVI came to Turkey on Tuesday carrying a surprise gesture of goodwill aimed at blunting Muslim anger toward him: he blessed Turkey’s long-stalled desire to join the European Union, reversing his position of two years ago.
Turkey’s prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, told reporters after a brief meeting with Benedict at the airport here that he had asked the pope to support Turkey in its attempts to become a member of the European Union.
“He said, ‘You know we don’t have a political role, but we wish for Turkey’s entry into the E.U.,’ ” Mr. Erdogan said the pope told him. “His wish is a positive recommendation for us.”
Although the Vatican does not play a formal role in the European Union, the pope’s gesture was nonetheless a piece of political stagecraft at a delicate time both in relations between Muslims and the West and in Benedict’s own damaged reputation among Muslims.
Long before he angered the Muslim world two months ago with a speech criticized as equating Islam with violence, Benedict was disliked here because of comments he made, as a cardinal in 2004, opposing Turkey’s membership in the European Union. As the successor to the Ottoman Empire, Turkey had always stood, he said at the time, “in permanent contrast to Europe.”
But the 79-year-old pope’s concession on Tuesday, at the start of a four-day trip here, seemed to make good on his pledge to heal the wounds between East and West. It may also have the practical effect of tamping down anger here, which led to thick security on Tuesday, with helicopters hovering at the airport, commandoes guarding the pope’s plane and sharpshooters on the roofs of buildings.
It is unclear what effect the pope’s reversal will have on the fraught debate in Western Europe over Turkey’s membership, especially among conservatives who shared the views he expressed as a cardinal two years ago. Much of that opposition is rooted in the increased tension between the West and Islam, including fears of more terrorist attacks in Europe and the already difficult integration of millions of Muslims into Europe.
Some of the problems, though, are tied to the difficulty Turkey has had meeting specific demands of Europe to join the union — and the pope’s visit comes at a particularly sensitive time in Turkey’s talks with European negotiators.
Admission talks, which began this year, have hit a snag over the insistence, by the European Union, that Turkey open its ports and harbors to vessels from Greek Cyprus, an internationally recognized state opposed by Turkey. But officials in Turkey say they cannot do that until an international embargo that has been in place on the Turkish part of the island for more than 20 years is lifted.
Since Benedict did not make any announcement himself, it appeared to some degree a concession won by Mr. Erdogan, in a deft act of diplomacy that many critics said the pope’s speech two months ago lacked. Mr. Erdogan’s government is rooted in a moderate political Islam and, until Monday, he had said he would not be able to meet the pope on this visit. As the leader of the only Muslim country in NATO, he left immediately after to attend a meeting of the Western military alliance in Latvia.
Whatever the pope’s intent, his gesture did appear to achieve a political result in Turkey, where residents interviewed Tuesday said they saw it as a victory for Mr. Erdogan.
Hours later, the pope’s spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi, released a brief statement repeating that the Vatican has “neither the power nor the specific political task” of gaining Turkey admission to the E.U., in a time of apparently growing opposition to it in Europe.
But Father Lombardi said that the Vatican “views positively and encourages the road of dialogue and of moving toward integration of Turkey in Europe on the basis of common values and principles.”
In Ankara, residents expressed doubts about the pope’s sincerity, and it remains to be seen whether the pope’s gesture will have a warming effect in Turkey, or in the broader Muslim world.
“It’s not support, it’s a lie,” said Hakan Ozgunaydin, a 29-year-old co-owner of an upscale shoe and belt shop in downtown Ankara. “I would expect him to say, ‘those bloody Turks,’ when he leaves this country.”
Merve Celikkol, a 21-year-old physics student, was just as blunt, calling the pope a hypocrite: “How is it possible that he changed so much?”
A number of those interviewed did say they thought the new support was a decisive win for Mr. Erdogan, who has led the push for entry into Europe, at no small political cost to himself.
“This can be his way of confessing his sins for the wrong he has done to the Muslim world,” said Ismail Aytac, a 51-year-old sitting in a luxury watch shop. “After all, he’s human, and humans make mistakes.”
The trip here marks Benedict’s fifth outside Italy since he was elected pope last year, and his first outside the European Union and to a predominantly Muslim country. His main aim in this trip is to visit leaders of the Orthodox patriarchy here, as part of Benedict’s goal to mend the 1,000-year rift between the Roman church and the 220 million Orthodox.
But Christians make up less than half a percent of Turkey’s 72 million people, and as such it was clear this trip would be far different from those to Christian countries, even before he quoted a Byzantine emperor as referring to Islam as “evil and inhuman” in a speech in November in Germany. The trip to Turkey, though a modern and secular democracy, seemed particularly fraught with symbolism: Here Christian and Muslim warriors battled for centuries, as the Byzantine empire founded by Rome’s first Christian emperor gave way to Muslim Ottoman Turks who established their own empire and pushed deep into Europe.
After his plane touched down, the white-robed pope was met at the airport here with a red carpet and a small honor guard, but with none of the music, cheering crowds and waving banners of other trips.
Rather, small demonstrations protesting Benedict’s visit were held here and in Istanbul, where the pope will travel on Wednesday.
In brief comments on the plane, Benedict, who had apologized for the at-times violent reaction to his speech, made clear that one of his chief aims was to stimulate a “dialogue” to bring Christians and Muslims, the West and East, closer.
“The scope of this visit is dialogue, brotherhood, a commitment to understanding between cultures, between religions, for reconciliation,” he told reporters before his plane took off from Rome.
Mr. Erdogan, who unexpectedly greeted the pope at his plane, spoke too of the need for greater understanding.
“We are going through a tough period when the culture of violence has been expanding and our world faces disaster scenarios like the clashes of civilizations and polarizations in various directions,” he told reporters after his 20-minute meeting with Benedict. “Therefore, we need mutual understanding among different beliefs and civilizations more than any time in history.”
He said he viewed the pope’s visit as “very important” in building “an alliance of civilizations,” even as he seemed to refer to the pope’s speech about Islam and violence.
“I told him that Islam was a religion of peace and tolerance, and I saw that he shared this view,” he said.
Over the weekend, the Vatican began signaling a warming to the idea of Turkey’s membership in the European Union. Several church officials said the Vatican had no such opposition. The Vatican has never issued a formal position on the issue, In 2004, when then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger said it would be a “grave error” to admit Turkey, both he and other church officials described it as his personal opinion.
The stalemate over Turkey’s membership has frustrated Turkish officials, who are working toward meetings among European Union members in December.
“Everything is just stuck,” Namik Tan, a spokesman for Turkey’s Foreign Ministry, said Monday. “How can an elected government with all these restrictions over the Turkish Cypriots open its ports without any restrictions? This government has a public here.”
On Tuesday night, officials from the European Union met to set conditions for the future of the talks. Turkish officials expect certain topics in the negotiations to be suspended, but others to continue.
“Look, they said there would be a train crash,” Mr. Erdogan said at the news conference. “Now they say, there is no train crash, but the train slowed down.”
After his meeting with Mr. Erdogan, Benedict visited the grave of Kemal Attaturk, the founder of the secular Turkish state after World War I, creating with much struggle the fullest democracy in the Muslim world.
He met later with the nation’s chief Muslim religious figure, Ali Bardakoglu, who was among the fiercest critics of the pope’s speech two months ago, and Turkey’s president, Ahmed Necdet Sezer. Later in the evening, he met with members of the world’s diplomatic corps here in Turkey’s capital. At every stop, he stressed the need for greater joint efforts to end terror, war and misunderstanding.
“I appreciate the efforts of numerous countries currently engaged in rebuilding peace in Lebanon, Turkey, among them,” he told the ambassadors. “In your presence, ambassadors, I appeal once more to the vigilance of the international community, that it not abandon its responsibilities, but make every effort to promote peace and dialogue.”
Sebnem Arsu contributed reporting.
(C) THE NEW YORK TIMES, New York/USA