help to ease tensions here amid concerns about the growing influence of Islamic and nationalist militants in the country.
It was unclear what impact his arrival would have on a criminal trial against two Turkish Christians accused of "insulting Turkishness" and inciting hatred against Islam.
Hakan Tastan, 37, and Turan Topal, 46, appeared in front of the Silivri Criminal Court last week, Thursday, November 23, where they denied the charges. "We are being accused because we are Christians and because we have done missionary work," Tastan reportedly said.
The two missionaries are charged with violating Article 301 of the Turkish penal code for allegedly denigrating "Turkish identity," legislation that has been sharply criticized by the European Union and human rights groups.
"PRIMITIVE RELIGION"
Prosecutors accuse the two of allegedly telling possible converts that Islam was "a primitive and fabricated" religion and that Turks would remain "barbarians" as long they remained Muslims.
The prosecutors also charge them of speaking out against the country’s compulsory military service, and compiling databases on possible converts. Hakan Tastan and Turan Topal had worked for a local Bible correspondence Course in October when security forces stormed Tastan’s residence with a search warrant, advocacy group Christian Solidarity Worldwide said.
"They then confiscated computers and documents from the two men’s office in Istanbul. The men were transported to Silivri, where they were interrogated by military officials and taken to the prosecutor," CSW explained BosNewsLife.
Tastan and Topal, who could face up to nine years in prison, have denied the accusations against them in court. "I am a Turk, I am a Turkish citizen. I don’t accept the accusations of insulting ‘Turkishness,"’ Turkish news agency Anatolia quoted Tastan as saying.
CHRISTIANITY "FREE"
He said however that he and his co-worker, "don’t use force to tell anyone about Christianity." However, he stressed, "We are Christians, and if the Lord permits, we will continue to proclaim this."
Tastan reportedly added, "I am a Christian, that’s true. I explain the Bible … to people who want to learn. I am innocent." He told the court that he was "a Turk, a Turkish citizen," and that it was therefore "impossible for me to insult ‘Turkishness."’
The trial comes at a difficult time when the Pope is under pressure to apologize for recent comments during a lecture in Germany in September about Islam in which he questioned the concept of holy war.
Thousands of people demonstrated against the visit of the pope in recent days, many of them Muslims. However the pontiff tried to play down the row saying that the "scope of this visit is dialogue, brotherhood, a commitment to understanding between cultures, between religions, for reconciliation," before leaving Rome for Turkey.
POLITICAL RAMNIFICATIONS
The visit by the leader of 1.1 billion Roman Catholics was originally intended to be a pre-eminently Christian event but it has taken on wider political ramifications in Western-Islamic relations, Catholic-Muslim relations and Turkey’s own aspirations to be part of Europe.
The Pope will have to attempt to repair damage on several fronts as he visits the predominantly Muslim country that is officially secular. After he arrived in Ankara on Tuesday, November 28, he briefly met Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan at the airport.
There was concern Erdogan would not meet the pope, using an upcoming NATO summit as an excuse and trying to "overshadow" the pontiff’s visit, a Vatican worker told BosNewsLife.
However Erdogan, a devout Muslim, changed his schedule at the last moment, allowing a meeting at the airport of Ankara, before leaving for the NATO gathering in Riga, Latvia. The prime minister said the four-day visit would help contribute to global peace and promised his nation would "show hospitality to the Pope…"
Yet Christians in the country remain concerned, recalling not only controversial ‘conversion’ trials against former Muslims among them, but also violent attacks against the Christian community. Among other incidents, this month Odemis Protestant Church in the town of Izmir was attacked with six Molotov Cocktails by a group of fifteen people, Christian investigators said.
DEADLY ATTACKS
Some of the attacks were deadly. In February, in the Black Sea city of Trabzon a teenager shot and killed Father Andrea Santoro, 61, he prayed in a church in Trabzon. Witnesses said the attacker shouted "Allahu Akbar," Arabic for "God is Great," as the 16-year-old boy fired two bullets into the priest’s back after Sunday Mass.
The attack happened during increased worldwide tensions over caricatures of Islam’s Prophet Muhammad published in Europe. In comments to Reuters news agency, Christian pastor Behnan Konutgan said his activities, including translating the Bible into Turkish and defending his faith, was bearing little fruit.
"This year we have seen rising prejudice against Christians. Islamic and nationalistic sentiment is growing, probably because of the Iraq War, and people are angry," he explained, in his office in a rundown district of old Istanbul.
Analysts say suspicion of Christianity in Turkey has roots deep in Ottoman history and was heightened by later efforts of European powers to carve up the waning empire and give Christians more rights. (With reports from Turkey).
