PROTEST BANNED AS ERDOGAN
▶ With police on the streets, first visit of Turkish leader in 59 years clouded by anger at Ankara’s raids into Syria
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan met Pope Francis yesterday while police enforced a protest ban in central Rome as feelings ran high over Turkey’s offensive against Kurdish militia in northern Syria.
During the 50-minute audience, Francis gave Mr Erdogan a medallion.
For the first such visit by a Turkish leader in 59 years, the Italian authorities imposed a 24-hour ban on demonstrations, which covered Mr Erdogan’s arrival on Sunday to his departure last night. About 3,500 police were deployed.
However, a small sit-in protest by about 30 people, organised by a Kurdish association in Italy, took place yesterday not far from the Vatican.
Turkey on January 20 launched its “Olive Branch” operation against Syrian Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) militia, which Ankara considers a terrorist group and a threat to Turkish territory. The Turkish army and allied Ankara-backed Syrian rebel forces are seeking to expel the YPG from its western border stronghold of Afrin but the operation has faced fierce resistance.
“In Afrin, a new crime against humanity is under way,” the Kurdish association said.
The fighters and civilians killed in the Turkish assault on the region included female combatant Barin Kobani, whose mutilated body appeared in a shocking video, prompting accusations by her family and Kurdish officials that she was defiled by rebels backed by Turkey. The YPG, while considered a terrorist group by Ankara, is allied with the United States in its battle against ISIL.
The pope, who has railed against the horrors of war and weapons of mass destruction, gave Mr Erdogan the gift of a medallion with “an angel of peace strangling the demon of war”.
“It’s a symbol of a world based on peace and justice,” the pontiff said, according to two journalists at the meeting.
Mr Erdogan for his part was expected to thank the pontiff for opposing the decision by US President Donald Trump to recognise Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. His visit to Italy included a meeting with Italian president, Sergio Mattarella, and Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni.
Illegal immigration, defence and Turkey’s bid for EU membership topped the agenda of talks.
Pope Francis, a strong proponent of inter-faith dialogue, visited Turkey in November 2014, holding talks with Mr Erdogan.
While in Istanbul, the pope acknowledged that current global crises had made Muslims vulnerable to being stigmatised. The pope denounced those who said “all Muslims are terrorists”.
Relations were not so cordial in June 2016 when the pope, during a visit to Armenia, referred to the 1915-1917 mass killings of Armenians by Ottoman forces as genocide.
The Vatican was forced to refute claims from Turkey that Pope Francis had showed a “mentality of the Crusades” over his use of the term. Turkey – the Ottoman Empire’s successor state – says that it was a collective tragedy in which Turks and Armenians died.
On Sunday, Mr Erdogan also insisted in a newspaper interview that Turkey wanted “full membership of Europe” and did not rule out joint Italian-Turkish action in Libya.