Istanbul, Turkey - A novel was published here in May, winning more notoriety than sales, called “Assassination of a Pope.”
It was inspired not by the attempt on the life of Pope John Paul II by a Turkish gunman in 1981, but by the trip to Turkey of his successor, Benedict XVI, who is coming to this overwhelmingly Muslim country in late November primarily to meet the Orthodox patriarch, who lives in Istanbul.
Benedict was far from loved here even before his speech in Germany two weeks ago quoting a medieval commentator who called aspects of Islam “evil and inhuman.” But his visit, and the book, play on one of Turkey’s deepest fears: that the secular and unified Turkish state could begin to dissolve if the Orthodox patriarchate tries to become a sort of Vatican, a state within a state.
The pope apparently did not grasp fully that his words would hit Turkey even harder than those other Muslim countries where the reaction was violent. The anger in this nation that uncomfortably bridges West and East — with a strong recent tug from Islam — is far from over, and not just among the religious.
His words, secularists, government officials and religious figures agree, hit spots already bruised. And so his visit is likely to be a flash point for a surprisingly broad array of issues, from matters as global as relations between Muslims and Christians, and as strategic as Turkey’s aspirations to join the European Union, to the tense and difficult local question of the nation’s minorities, including the fewer than 5,000 Greek Orthodox Christians, who complain that Turkey has yet to grant them full rights.
“Such circumstances make the visit more interesting, necessary and important, more than in any other moment,” the ecumenical patriarch of Constantinople, Bartholomew, titular head of the world’s Orthodox Christians, said in an interview with a handful of reporters.
It is not lost on Turkey, deeply aware of its imperial past, that the conversation the pope quoted in his speech took place here: the Byzantine emperor Manuel II Paleologus, during one of the Ottoman sieges before the Christian empire crumbled and Constantinople became Istanbul, recorded a conversation in 1391 that he said he had had with a “learned Persian.” The topic — Christianity vs. Islam — has not yet ended.
“He said, I quote, ‘Show me just what Muhammad brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached,’ ” the pope said.
Despite the detour into Islam, most of the pope’s speech concerned the relationship between faith, reason and a criticism of the West. But after a loud, angry and at times violent reaction among Muslims, the pope expressed his regret several times for being misunderstood, saying he never meant to offend Islam.
Still, here in Turkey, even after the protest has died out elsewhere, the pope’s remarks remain headline news.
“The pope is both a political and religious figure,” Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan told an economic conference here. “But this person spoke in a way that is unfitting even for us politicians.”
Mr. Erdogan is not an ordinary politician: He is a the leader of a party with deep roots in Islam, and so his reaction reflects the more religious viewpoint in Turkey, a nation where Islam is considered on the rise, even if it is spared the extremism of many other countries.
But for many here, the speech marked the official turning of another important Western institution, the Vatican, against them, after years in which they felt Pope John Paul II was at least sympathetic to Muslims.
“If Western leaders of this kind are shutting the door, we are feeling very lonely, and prey to reactionary and nationalistic forces,” said Dogu Ergil, a political science professor at Ankara University. “Turks are increasingly feeling that they have no allies, and so be it.”
Mr. Ergil said such alienation had already curbed enthusiasm inside Turkey for joining the European Union, which he said could slow the pace of reform, and ultimately tilt Turkey away from the West.
The pope’s comments also angered other secularists, who took the pope’s speech as a kind of patronizing lecture from a flawed parent, condemning all Muslims for the sins of a few.
“He could have said, ‘Look, all religions have some problems with violence, either today or in the past,’ ” said Ali Carkoglu, who is secular and a professor of social sciences at Sabanci University in Istanbul. “But this kind of stereotyping is like ‘Muslims have a problem and we don’t.’ At the end of the day, he didn’t take any responsibility for his own religion.”
And so to Turks, the pope’s comments carried both religious and political overtones, each connected to what many here see as larger divisions after the Sept. 11 attacks — between East and West, and Christianity and Islam — as well as about where Turkey will ultimately find itself.
As the world has become more polarized, with Europe fearful of more terrorist attacks and worried about Muslim immigrants, Turkey has found one of its long-term ambitions, to join the European Union, on no sure path to reality.
Part of the problem is Turkey’s own halting pace toward reform, on issues like freedom of expression and religion. Part of it is Europe’s fears of integrating a nation of 70 million, almost all Muslims, many of them poor.
There was never a high expectation here for Benedict, who as a cardinal opposed Turkey’s entry into the European Union on the ground that it had always stood “in permanent contrast to Europe.” And he frequently stresses Europe’s Christian roots.
The status of Christians in Turkey has long been difficult. Greek Christians in Turkey have dwindled to fewer than 5,000, from an estimated 180,000 in 1923.
Much of the difficulty revolves around the Orthodox patriarchate, which is forbidden by law to train new priests or to elect a new leader who is not a Turkish citizen.
For nationalists, the fear is that the patriarchate wants to declare itself a Vatican-like state, which they worry could aggravate a clamor for independence among other minorities, especially the Kurds. Benedict is now under particular scrutiny among nationalists, who are likely to interpret any expression of support for the Orthodox as some broader recognition of the patriarchate as an entity apart from Turkey.
“This would be a second mistake,” said Oktay Vural, a leader of the Nationalist Movement Party. “I don’t think the pope should intervene in this kind of discussion.”
The pope’s expressions of regret over his speech have officially mollified Turkey — and political and religious leaders say that he is welcome here, and that he will be safe. But hopes are high for him to make some dramatic gesture to mend the rift between Christianity and Islam, or to make the fuller apology for his speech that many Muslims around the world have been demanding.
“It is impossible to say that his statements so far have been sufficient or that they’ve eliminated all concerns,” the nation’s top Muslim cleric, Ali Bardakcioglu, said in response to questions sent in an e-mail message.
With the pope’s visit just two months away, he said, “Time is necessary for the mistake to be completely forgotten.”