Pope Leo XIV departs for Türkiye on first foreign trip to meet Erdoğan

Pope Leo XIV departs for Türkiye today, on November 27, marking his first foreign trip since his election.

The trip, which later takes him on to Lebanon, begins in Ankara, where the first American pontiff is scheduled to land shortly after midday, Caliber.Az reports, citing France24.

He is set to meet President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and speak before government officials, civil society figures, and members of the diplomatic corps.

The Pope is expected to deliver his speeches in English to reach the widest audience, with his first remarks likely to focus on dialogue with the Islamic world. Christians make up only 0.1% of Türkiye’s 86-million population, the majority of whom are Sunni Muslims.

On November 28, in Ankara, the Pope will visit the mausoleum of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk.

At the invitation of Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, he will join a prayer service on the shore of Lake Iznik to mark the 1,700th anniversary of the First Council of Nicaea, the 325 gathering of bishops where the Cross was established as a symbol of faith.

Leo’s trip comes as the Orthodox world faces unprecedented fragmentation, with the war in Ukraine sharpening the divide between the Moscow and Constantinople patriarchates.

He becomes the fifth pope to visit Türkiye, following Paul VI in 1967, John Paul II in 1979, Benedict XVI in 2006, and Francis in 2014.

On November 30, Leo will travel to Lebanon, a religiously diverse country crippled by a prolonged economic and political collapse since 2019 and hit repeatedly by Israeli airstrikes in recent days despite a ceasefire.

By Jeyhun Aghazada