Ertugrul Ozkok:Some words on the Pope's visit to Turkey

And then he added: "When you look at these images, you get the feeling that all of Turkey is like Fatih-Carsamba." (Fatih-Carsamba being Istanbul's most radically religious neighborhood.)

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Yesterday morning Yalcin Dogan called me. He was in Madrid. He basically told me the same thing my friend in Paris had related. He also told me that the Spanish newspapers were debating in their headlines "whether or not there would be an assassination attempt" against the Pope in Turkey. But this is completely normal, right? I mean, after all, when the person who has carried out the only assassination attempt against a Pope in human history is a citizen of your country......And when there are certain citizens in your country who proclaim this would-be Pope assassin as hero.......And when another citizen in your country has murdered a priest.......And when neither the governor nor the mayor of the city where this priest was killed makes any gesture of protest against this murder when the priest's body is returned to his country for burial.....Well, of course countries will talk about Turkey and the Pope's visit like this. Meanwhile, over a period of a few years, the Western image you have tried to form for your country is destroyed, turning into an almost Al Qaeda image.

Meanwhile, the truth about the Istanbul Pope protests is that, while the organizers alleged they would gather one million or more people in that city square, they could only get together 20 thousand or so. All religious people living in this country were not included in those bearded, cloaked, covered masses you saw in that square that day. No, the square was left to the uses of a "Carsamba theater," some costumed five-ten thousand religious radicals who displayed their fanaticism. Still, what was written about it?

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In the Christian world, while there is still a media waiting to search out these tedious photographs, while there are still journalists eager to print these headlines, and in Turkey, while there still politicians ready to reap their political advantages from these costumes and theater decor, there will be no escape for us.

Fanaticism international is pleased with these happy alliances, and with this job partitioning between the media, the journalists, and the radicals.

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This past Friday night, I watched Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan on the TGRT news. He was talking about his views on the upcoming papal visit. He spoke in a very calm, sympathetic manner. He asserted that he was trying to find the right place to meet with the Pope, and that the Pope would be treated in the best manner possible while in Turkey. He also noted that protests made against a visit by the Pope were in fact contrary to Turkish customs.

And as I listened, I thought to myself: it's a good thing we experienced the February 28 period. It's a good thing Erdogan and his circle broke off from those fanatics to form the AKP. Turkey, of Muslim countries in the world, is the most open and closest to the rest of the world. And now our Prime Minister is helping organize an alliance of civilizations project specifically aimed at reducing world tension between Muslims and Christians. It is appropriate that, of all the Muslim countries in the world, Turkey would be the one to oversee such a project. And the visit by the Pope, which begins today, might just be one of the most important legs that this world project winds up standing on.

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For my part, I am placing a tremendous amount of importance on this visit by the Pope. And so, I wish him welcome to Turkey. And I also wish this: please, listen to us. Listen to us without pre-judgement, and with a will to be constructive. And we, of course, will listen to you the same way.