Pope Benedict Makes First Trip to Turkey

Pope Benedict XVI landed in the Turkish capital of Ankara Tuesday amid security measures higher than provided for U.S. President George Bush two years ago.

In a speech at the directorate for religious affairs, the pope called for a dialogue between Christians and Muslims based on truth and inspired by a sincere wish to know one another better, the BBC reported.

The trip, Benedict’s first as pope to a majority Muslim country, has been preceded by massive protests. About 20,000 Muslim students turned out for a demonstration Sunday in Istanbul, demanding the pope apologize for a speech in which he quoted 14th century writings denouncing Islam.

The security measures include 15,000 police, an armored motorcade along with decoy motorcades, sniffer dogs, patrol aircraft and rooftop snipers along the pope’s travel routes, the BBC said.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan reversed an earlier statement saying he had a scheduling conflict because of the NATO summit that began in Latvia Tuesday, and greeted the pontiff at the airport.

Later in the day, the pope was also scheduled to meet Turkish President Ahmet Necdet Sezer.

The trip marks the first for Benedict to a mainly Muslim country. The last papal visits to Turkey were made by Paul VI in 1967 and John Paul II in 1979.