Turk fires shots in protest at visit of Pope Benedict

POLICE were last night questioning a man who fired shots into the air outside the Italian consulate in Istanbul to protest at the forthcoming visit by Pope Benedict XVI.

The suspect told a television reporter he wanted to “strangle” the pontiff with his bare hands.

“I don’t want him here. If he was here now I would strangle him with my bare hands,” Ibrahim Ak, aged 26, told Turkey’s Dogan news agency cameraman as he was detained by police.

“I fired the shots for God,” Ak said as he sat handcuffed inside a police van outside the consulate. “Inshallah (God willing), this will be a spark, a starter for Muslims. God willing, he will not come, if he comes, he will see what will happen to him.”

Pope Benedict is scheduled to visit Turkey between November 28 and December 1. It would be his first visit as Pope to a predominantly Muslim country, just two months after he provoked widespread anger by quoting an emperor who characterised the Prophet Mohammed’s teachings as “evil and inhuman”.

The Pope has since expressed regret for offending Muslims and called for dialogue with Islam.

“That shameless, dishonourable Pope will not come to this country!” Ak shouted as police escorted him to a nearby police station in the crowded Beyoglu district for questioning.

The Vatican’s chief spokesman, the Rev Federico Lombardi, said the incident was “an isolated fact, marginal, which won’t have any influence on the preparations or climate surrounding the trip.”

The spokesman referred to a Vatican statement earlier which sought to play down suggestions that Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan was snubbing the Pope by attending a Nato meeting in Riga during the pontiff’s trip.

Meanwhile, the EU has cancelled a meeting with foreign ministers of Cyprus and Turkey, which it had called to prevent the collapse of Turkey’s troubled EU membership drive.

The meeting, scheduled in Helsinki on Sunday and Monday, is a setback for Turkey’s bid to join the EU. It opened membership talks in October 2005, but since then opposition has grown to bringing the Muslim nation to the fold, especially one seen as slow to embrace basic political reforms and effectively refuses to recognise EU member Cyprus.