Turkish PM: Pope must apologize to Muslim world

Asked if Benedict's remarks on Islam would affect his November trip, Erdogan said: 'I wouldn't know,' leaving open the possibility the trip may be canceled
ANKARA - AP and TDN
Sunday, September 17, 2006


Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Saturday that Pope Benedict XVI must apologize to the Muslim world for his recent remarks on Islam, and cast some doubt on whether the pontiff's trip to Turkey would go ahead as planned.
Earlier on Saturday, a Turkish government official said Ankara would not ask the pope to cancel the November visit -- his first papal trip to a Muslim country. The official was speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to media without prior authorization.
But when asked later if Benedict's remarks on Islam would affect the November trip, Erdogan said: "I wouldn't know," leaving open the possibility the trip may be canceled.
Benedict's remarks Tuesday on Islam and jihad unleashed a torrent of rage across the Muslim world.
Harsh denunciation also has come from secular Turkey, where the ruling party likened the pontiff to Hitler and Mussolini and accused him of reviving the mentality of the Crusades. Even a staunchly pro-secular party demanded an apology.
"I believe it is necessary for him to take back the ... ugly, unfortunate statements that he has made and to apologize to the Islamic world and to Muslims," Erdogan said on Saturday.
"The pope spoke not like a man of religion but like a usual politician," he said. "We hope that he will correct his error immediately and avoid casting a shadow over (efforts) to develop dialogue between faiths."
Such statements have raised doubts on whether the pope's visit will take place.
"That will depend on how things progress," a Vatican representative in eastern Turkey said.
"It is something which the Holy See and the Turkish authorities will have to work out together," Monsignor Luigi Padovese, the apostolic vicar for Anatolia, told The Associated Press by telephone during a trip to northern Turkey.
Padovese accused the Turkish media of "misunderstanding" Benedict's remarks and of stoking hatred against the pope.
"They call him the 'voice of the devil,``' he said, referring to a front-page headline Saturday in the pro-Islamic daily Vakit.
But the English-language Turkish Daily News, while deploring the pope's comments, said: "We just disagree with this vendetta-like approach of continuing to abuse the pope after his spokesman made a statement saying that he respected Islam and did not intend to offend Muslims."
There had been a spate of violence against the Catholic Church in Turkey even before the pope's recent remarks. In February, a priest was killed while kneeling in prayer in his church in the Black Sea city of Trabzon while another priest was stabbed and a third was grabbed by the throat, thrown into a garden and threatened with death.
Vatican spokesman Rev. Federico Lombardi said the pope had not intended to offend Muslim sensibilities and insisted Benedict respected Islam.
Salih Kapusuz, deputy leader of Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's ruling AK Party, said on Friday that Benedict's remarks were either "the result of pitiful ignorance" about Islam and its prophet, or worse, a deliberate distortion of the truths.
"He has a dark mentality that comes from the darkness of the Middle Ages. He is a poor thing that has not benefited from the spirit of reform in the Christian world," Kapusuz told Turkish state media. "It looks like an effort to revive the mentality of the Crusades."
"Benedict, the author of such unfortunate and insolent remarks, is going down in history for his words," he said. "He is going down in history in the same category as leaders such as Hitler and Mussolini."
Even Turkey's staunchly pro-secular opposition party demanded that the pope apologize to Muslims before his visit.