Pope Leo XIV has met with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Ankara as he embarks on his first official trip abroad.
The Pontiff was welcomed by Erdogan at the presidential palace in Ankara, where a guard of honour was held for him after visiting the Ataturk mausoleum.
During his visit, Pope Leo is expected to meet with the country’s head of Religious affairs, diplomatic corps, the Apostolic Nunciatures and civil society leaders.
The three-day visit to Türkiye marks his first trip since becoming the head of the Catholic church outside Italy, where he is expected to call for Christian unity and appeal for peace across the Middle East.
The pontiff, elected in May to succeed the late Pope Francis, chose Türkiye as his inaugural foreign destination to mark the 1,700th anniversary of the early Church council at Nicaea, which produced the Nicene Creed used by most Christians today.
He will later travel to Lebanon, which has the Middle East’s largest Christian population.
Vatican analysts said the trip offers the first substantial insight into Leo’s geopolitical outlook.
“This is the first big chance for him to make clear his views,” Massimo Faggioli, an Italian academic, told Reuters.
In Istanbul, Leo will meet Patriarch Bartholomew, spiritual leader of the world’s 260 million Orthodox Christians, reflecting efforts to strengthen ties since the East–West Schism of 1054.
The two leaders are due to travel on Friday to Iznik, formerly Nicaea, about 140 km (90 miles) southeast of the city, where early churchmen formulated the creed that still shapes mainstream Christian belief.
The Vatican said Leo will deliver his speeches in English rather than Italian, a departure from recent papal practice.
The pope, a relative unknown before his election, spent decades as a missionary in Peru before becoming a Vatican official in 2023. Francis had planned his own visit to Türkiye and Lebanon but was unable to travel owing to failing health.
Peace is expected to dominate the Lebanese leg of the trip, which begins on Sunday. The visit comes days after Israel killed the top military official in Hezbollah in an airstrike on a southern Beirut suburb despite a year-long, U.S.-brokered truce. Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni said on Monday that necessary security measures were being taken but declined to give details.
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A U.S. submarine strike sank an Iranian warship off the coast of Sri Lanka, leaving at least 80 dead, the country’s deputy foreign minister said. Meanwhile, Iran postponed the funeral of its late Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, according to state media.
The election of Iran’s next supreme leader could provide an opportunity to end the ongoing regional war involving Israel, the U.S. and Iran, Türkiye’s Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan has said.
U.S. President Donald Trump said the U.S. military has enough stockpiled weapons to fight wars "forever"; in a social media post late on Monday. The remarks came hours before conflict in Iran and the Middle East entered its fourth day.
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A torpedo from a U.S. submarine sunk an Iranian warship off the coast of Sri Lanka, U.S. Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth told reporters as the Iranian conflcit entered its fifth day on Wednesday.
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The White House says deploying United States ground troops in Iran is not currently part of the military strategy in the ongoing conflict with Tehran.
Israel has warned residents to leave a significant area in southern Lebanon, instructing them to move north of the Litani River as hostilities with the Iran-backed Lebanese group Hezbollah intensified on Wednesday.
U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth says the United States is making gains in its conflict with Iran after a key Iranian naval target was destroyed, confirming that the strike was carried out by a U.S. submarine off the coast of Sri Lanka. Rescue efforts are now under way for the ship’s crew.
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