Pope urges Turkish leader to be a force for peace

Leo XIV begins his first foreign trip as pontiff with a plea for stability and dialogue.

- By NIcote WINFIELD, SUZAN FRASER, SERRA YEDIKARDES AND ANDREW WILKS

TURKISH President Recep Tayyip Erdogan walks with Pope Leo into the presidential palace in Ankara.

(DOMENICO STINELLIS Associated Press)

Pope Leo XIV encouraged Turkey to be a source of stability and dialogue in a world riven by conflict as he opened his first foreign trip as pope on Thursday, with a plea for peace amid efforts to end wars in Ukraine and Gaza.

The American pope emphasized a message of peace as he arrived in Ankara, welcomed on the tarmac by a military guard of honor and at the presidential palace by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Speaking to Erdogan and the country’s diplomatic corps at a library in the palace complex, Leo praised Turkey’s historic role as a bridge between East and West, at the crossroads of religions and cultures.

“May Turkey be a source of stability and rapprochement between peoples, in service of a just and lasting peace,” he said, speaking in front of a giant globe. “Today, more than ever, we need people who will promote dialogue and practice it with firm will and patient resolve.”

Leo’s visit comes as Turkey—a country of more than 85 million people, predominantly Sunni Muslims — has cast itself as a key intermediary in efforts to end the conflicts in Ukraine and Gaza.

Ankara has hosted rounds of talks with Russia and with Ukraine and offered to take part in the stabilization force in Gaza to help oversee a fragile ceasefire. Israel, which has had rocky relations with Turkey for years, accuses Ankara of supporting Hamas and has ruled out any role for Turkish troops in a stabilization force.