TURKISH KNOT – TRIP POSES DAUNTING, INTERLOCKING TESTS FOR POPE BENEDICT
By John L. Allen Jr.
National Catholic Reporter ()
Catholic Online, CA
Nov 21 2006
ROME (National Catholic Reporter) – When Pope Benedict XVI travels
to Turkey Nov. 28-Dec. 1, he faces a series of challenges that,
like concentric circles, become larger and more daunting as they’re
arranged around one another. Coupled with the intense media attention
the trip is certain to draw – more than 2,000 journalists are expected
to follow the pope on his first visit to a majority Muslim state –
these complexities make Turkey the trickiest high-wire act of his
pontificate to date.
Advertisement Benedict is scheduled to make stops in Ankara, Ephesus
and Istanbul.
Among the conundrums awaiting him:
– How to reassure Muslims that he’s a friend of Islam, especially in
the wake of his controversial Sept. 12 comments at the University of
Regensburg, quoting a 14th-century Byzantine emperor to the effect that
Muhammad brought things "only evil and inhuman"? Benedict won’t have
to wait long; on the first day of the trip, he meets Ali Bardakoglu,
Turkey’s top religious affairs director, who called the Regensburg
remarks "regrettable and worrying … both for the Christian world
and for the common peace of humanity."
– How to encourage moderate Muslim voices in Turkey, a country
often seen as the best hope for dialogue with the Islamic world,
without inadvertently reinforcing either of two contrary forces:
on the one hand, a rising tide of Islamic fundamentalism sometimes
linked to nostalgia for the Ottoman Empire; and on the other, the
rigid secularization associated with the modern founder of Turkey,
Kemal Ataturk, who attempted to suppress virtually every public
expression of Islam?
– What, if anything, to say about the dire situation facing Turkey’s
small Christian communities, such as the forced closure of the
seminaries of the patriarchate of Constantinople and the Armenian
Orthodox church? If the pope is perceived as confrontational, it could
further sour relations with Muslims, especially given the bitter
history in Turkey of foreign powers demanding special treatment
for Christians. Yet the original purpose of Benedict’s visit was
to reinforce ecumenical relations with the Orthodox, especially
Bartholomew I, patriarch of Constantinople, and it’s difficult to
imagine that the pope can remain silent on the issue of religious
freedom.
– What, if anything, to say about Turkey’s candidacy for the European
Union – a move which then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger had opposed prior
to his election as pope, on the grounds that it would further muddy
Europe’s Christian identity? (Ironically, the more radical Muslim
forces in Turkey, which Benedict wants to discourage, are the most
likely to be Euro-skeptics.)
– What, if anything, to say about the decimation of Turkey’s Armenian
population in the early 20th century, which Armenians recall as
"genocide," a term bitterly contested by Turks? Especially when
Benedict meets the Armenian patriarch in Turkey, Mesrob II, on Nov.
30, it will be a tough question to avoid.
– What, if anything, to say about the delicate situation on
Cyprus, where an unrecognized Turkish regime controls the northern
portion of the island? On Nov. 10, Benedict met with President
Tassos Papadopoulos, who governs the Greek-dominated (and therefore
predominantly Christian) portion of Cyprus, receiving a collection of
photos from Papadopoulos showing Christian churches in the north that
have been destroyed or converted into mosques, bars and hotels. The
meeting was widely seen in Turkey as a pro-Greek gesture, and it
raised expectations that Benedict may address the Cyprus question
during the trip.
Beyond these challenges, one final unknown hovers in the form of
security considerations. In perhaps the most ominous premonition,
a potboiler novel published in Turkey over the summer titled
Papa’ya suikast (Attack on the Pope) predicted that Benedict will
be assassinated while in Turkey. Written by novelist Yucel Kaya,
the book is subtitled, "Who will kill Benedict XVI in Istanbul?"
Both senior Vatican officials and local organizers say that while the
pope can be protected, it may prove more difficult to secure local
Christian targets – churches, schools and Christian-owned businesses –
against reprisals should public opinion turn against the trip or should
extremist groups want to capitalize on the pope’s presence to lash out.
Turkey thus offers both promise and peril aplenty for Benedict’s effort
to engage Muslims in what he has called a "frank and sincere" dialogue.
Despite Ataturk’s vision in the early 20th century of a modern,
pro-Western Turkey, the Islamic roots of the country are never far
from the surface. Historically, the Ottoman Empire was considered
the great carrier of Islamic civilization from the 16th to the 20th
centuries, and Turkish Muslims have kept that heritage alive despite
several decades of official secularization.
The electoral victory of Islamic-inspired political forces in the
2002 national elections, which brought former Istanbul Mayor Recep
Tayyip Erdogan to power as prime minister, offered a clear reminder
of Turkey’s enduring Muslim identity. (Erdogan will not meet Benedict
in Turkey, opting instead to attend a NATO summit in Latvia.)
A recent national poll conducted by Professors Ali Carkoglu and
Ersin Kalaycioglu from Sabanci and Isik Universities in Istanbul
found that more than 60 percent of Turks would refuse permission
for their daughter to marry a non-Muslim, 60 percent blamed a lack of
religious beliefs for "failure in life," and 46 percent favored schools
specialized in religious teachings for their children over schools
with secular curriculums. Almost 70 percent said they considered the
country’s ban on headscarves for women to be religious oppression
and supported its repeal.
Further, it’s uniformly believed in Turkey that if the country were to
lurch too far in the direction of an Islamic theocracy along the lines
of neighboring Iran, the Turkish military would intervene and restore
the country’s officially secular orientation. The military toppled
heads of state in 1960, 1971 and 1980, and engineered a bloodless
"postmodern coup" in 1997 that resulted in the forced resignation of
then-Prime Minister Necmettin Erbakan, who had exploited pro-Islamic
sentiment.
Benedict’s more challenging line on Islam with respect to his
predecessor, John Paul II, has to date revolved around two points:
terrorism and "reciprocity," meaning the need for Islamic states
to respect Western standards of religious freedom. In that light,
it’s difficult to imagine that Benedict would visit Turkey and not
at least indirectly raise issues of religious freedom, such as the
status of the Halki Seminary of the patriarchate of Constantinople,
shuttered by government edict for 35 years, or the status of Greek
Orthodox churches and other institutions in Cyprus.
Such issues, however, risk inflaming Turkish opinion, potentially
being seen as further proof of an anti-Turkish bias. At least one
local Christian leader, the Armenian patriarch in Turkey, Mesrob II,
has expressed hope that the pope won’t bring up such matters, which
he described as "interfering in the internal affairs of Turkey."
"It should be dealt with on a different basis, not during an apostolic
visit," he told National Catholic Reporter in September 2005.
In part, such reluctance reflects historical memories of the long
decline of the Ottoman Empire, when first the French and then other
foreign powers extracted a series of "capitulations" granting special
privileges to Christians. The system began at street level: Christian
women, for example, were allowed to travel first-class on second-class
tickets on the ferries that crisscrossed the Bosphorus.
In fact, when Ataturk declared equality before the law for all Turkish
citizens in the early 20th century, some Christians protested on the
grounds that it would mean giving up a patchwork of special advantages
and perks.
Many Turks associate these capitulations with the gradual undermining
of the Ottoman Empire, so the specter of Western figures demanding
better treatment for Christians today tends to awaken these
historical ghosts. Benedict faces the challenge of phrasing his
defense of Turkey’s Christians, who are generally Greek and Armenian,
as a matter of universal human rights in a way that doesn’t simply
deepen Turkish defensiveness.
That may be especially tricky, given that for many Turkish Muslims,
Benedict XVI doesn’t start with a clean slate. Aside from Regensburg,
he is also known for widely publicized comments prior to his election
as pope opposing Turkey’s European Union candidacy.
In a 2004 interview with the French daily Le Figaro, then-Cardinal
Joseph Ratzinger said that Turkey has always been "in permanent
contrast to Europe," and that it should look instead to play a
leadership role in a network of Islamic states.
"In the course of history, Turkey has always represented a different
continent," Ratzinger said, giving as an example the Ottoman
Empire, which once invaded Europe as far as Vienna. "Making the two
continents identical would be a mistake," he said. "It would mean a
loss of richness, the disappearance of the cultural to the benefit
of economics."
It’s not clear whether Ratzinger’s private opinion as cardinal will
drive the Vatican’s formal diplomatic stance now that he’s pope. Some
Christian leaders hope not.
"Isn’t it hypocritical to say that a Muslim country at the edge of
Europe, which is much more moderate than many other Islamic nations,
as secular as it can be within its own tradition, can’t enter simply
because it’s Muslim?" said Mesrob, the Armenian patriarch in Turkey,
who studied in Rome at the Dominican-run Angelicum University.
Mesrob gave three reasons why he supports Turkey’s entry:
– "As a citizen on the street, I believe that if Turkey is in the EU,
its whole system of law will have to be upgraded by the standards of
European forms of democracy."
– As a Christian, I believe that Turkey’s entry will help build a
multicultural society in which Christians have equal opportunities."
– "As an Armenian, I believe Europe will not allow Turkey to enter
without fixing its problems with Greece, Cyprus and Armenia."
The Armenian question is itself yet another potential headache.
There are only some 2,000 Greek Orthodox Christians in Turkey, but
almost 100,000 Armenian Orthodox, including 68,000 Turkish Armenians
and 30,000 migrant laborers. Both they and the worldwide Armenian
diaspora, which is especially strong in the United States, will be
waiting to hear Benedict say something about the mass killing of
Armenians in Eastern Anatolia in 1915, and again in 1922 and 1923,
a tragedy that Armenians remember as a genocide, but which Turks
insist involved atrocities on all sides. (Conventional estimates are
that somewhere between 800,000 and 1.5 million Armenians died during
this period.)
When John Paul II in 2001 visited the Tzitzernagaberd Memorial in
Yerevan, capital of the independent republic of Armenia, he did not
himself use the word "genocide," referring instead in Armenian to the
Metz Yeghern, a phrase that means "great killing." Yet John Paul and
Armenian Patriarch Karekin II put out a joint statement recalling the
suffering of "what is generally referred to as the first genocide of
the 20th century."
Given that precedent, it may be especially difficult for Benedict XVI
to avoid the term himself. Yet if he does, it is sure to be taken by
many Turks as another slight, especially in light of a recent dustup
with France over a proposed French law that would make it a crime to
deny the Armenian genocide.
At almost every turn in Turkey, Benedict faces tough choices. His
every utterance will be subjected to microscopic scrutiny both by
the media and by Muslim commentators.
Whatever happens, the world should have a more clear sense by the
evening of Dec. 1, when Benedict’s plane leaves Turkish airspace,
of what kind of dialogue with Islam he may be able to engineer – and,
perhaps, of what kind of pope he hopes to be.
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John L. Allen Jr. is National Catholic Reporter senior correspondent.
www.ncronline.org