Turks pride themselves on their hospitality but rarely have they received a less welcome guest than Pope Benedict XVI, reports Gareth Jenkins Pope Benedict XVI flew into a storm of controversy when he arrived in Turkey last week for a four-day visit, his first to a Muslim country since his election as leader of the world's Catholics in April 2005. Turks pride themselves on their hospitality but rarely have they received a less welcome guest. According to an opinion poll conducted shortly before the pontiff arrived in the country, 44.1 per cent of Turks were opposed to his visit, while 44.2 per cent could not care one way or the other. Only 11.7 per cent thought he should come. The Catholic Church has never been popular in Turkey but Pope Benedict has become a particular figure of hate for many Turks because of what many suspect is his chauvinistic prejudice against both their country and religion. Last year the pontiff publicly declared that Turkey was unfit to join the EU. While in a speech in his native Germany in September this year he infuriated the entire Muslim world by quoting the 14th century Byzantine Emperor Manuel II Palaiologos who had described the Prophet Mohamed as bringing only "things only evil and inhuman" and commanding his followers to spread Islam by the sword. Benedict's speech caused an uproar in Turkey with Ali Bardakoglu, president of the Religious Affairs Directorate, describing the pontiff as having "a crusader mentality". In addition to outrage at what they saw as an insult to their religion, many Turks were bewildered by Benedict's apparent selective memory of the Catholic Church's own history, particularly given that it was the Ottoman Sultan Bayezid II who sent the Ottoman navy to Spain in 1492 to rescue the Jewish community there from persecution by the Spanish Inquisition and give them asylum in the Ottoman Empire. Last Sunday more than 25,000 people demonstrated in Istanbul in a last ditch attempt to prevent the papal visit, shouting slogans such as, "you're not welcome. Don't come!" and "go to hell, pope!" "The pope should first apologise to the Muslim community before he has the temerity to set foot on this blessed soil," Recai Kutan, chairman of the Felicity Party, told the crowds. The pope's visit also posed problems for members of the ruling Justice and Development Party (JDP). Under Turkish state protocol, Benedict was officially the guest of President Ahmet Necdet Sezer, whom he met on Wednesday. But almost any other prominent visitor would also have met a series of high-ranking representatives of the government. Yet, after Benedict's comments in September, none of the JDP ministers wanted to meet him. In the run-up to his visit, all the leading member of the JDP succeeded in arranging meetings for themselves outside the country. It was only at the last moment that Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan was persuaded by his advisors that snubbing the leader of the world's Catholics might damage Turkey's international image and grudgingly agreed to meet Benedict for 20 minutes at Ankara airport before flying off to a NATO summit in Latvia. But the most controversial part of Benedict's visit was the two days he spent in Turkey's second city of Istanbul. It is an open secret that, even though protocol demands that he be invited by the Turkish president, the real reason for the pope's visit was not to visit Turkey or the Turks at all but to meet Patriarch Bartholomeos I, the spiritual leader of the Greek Orthodox Church who has his headquarters in Istanbul. Benedict has repeatedly stated that one of the long-term aims of his pontificate is to try to heal the 1,000-year-old rift between Catholic and Orthodox Christians and many in both churches see his meeting with Bartholomeos as an important first step. But to Turkish nationalists the meeting is part of a larger conspiracy directed both against the Islamic faith and Turkey's territorial integrity. Even though the once thriving Greek community in Istanbul has shrunk to less than 1,300, many suspect that Bartholomeos and Greek Orthodox Church harbour secret plans to resurrect the Byzantine Empire, starting by establishing a Greek Orthodox state within a state in the centre of Istanbul, similar to the status of the Vatican in Rome. The most vigorous protests against Benedict's visit to Turkey came not from Islamist groups but from Turkish nationalists, who organised vocal demonstrations and handed out posters depicting a two-headed snake: the face of Benedict imposed on one and that of Bartholomeos on the other. "Benedict is not welcome and he should not be here," said Kemal Kerincsiz, an ultranationalist lawyer who heads a group calling themselves the Union of Jurists. "It is an international conspiracy. We won't let them succeed." (Left photo): Iskandar Shalaby, CEO and Executive Manager of Mobinil; Naguib Sawiris, chairman of Mobinil and Orascom; Ezzat Abu Ouf, head of the festival; and Soheir Abdel-Qader, deputy head of the festival. (Right photo): Samar Hatata, media relations at Al-Ahram Establishment; Shalaby; Caricaturist Ramses; and Taha Seifallah, media relations manager at Mobinil The Egyptian Company for Mobile Service (Mobinil) and Orascom Telecom Holdings (OTH) are sponsoring the 30th Cairo International Film Festival. This year's festival will be held on November 28 to December 8 and will focus on a number of different areas, including a spotlight on the South American film industry. The Cairo International Film Festival (CIFF) was first held in 1976 and has been held every year ever since. The festival was set up with a view to becoming an international cultural event. For the last twenty nine years, the festival has hosted some of the biggest names in international cinema, including Nicolas Cage, John Malkovich, Morgan Freeman, Sophia Loren, Claudia Cardinale, Elizabeth Taylor, Peter O'Toole, Christopher Lee, Omar Al Sherif, Vanessa Redgrave and Oliver Stone. This year's festival includes a number of different competitions, including two new awards for Best Arabic Film and Best Feature Digital Film, as well as a special tribute to Nobel Laureate Naguib Mahfouz, recently honored at a special event hosted by Mobinil. The films featured in the CIFF are being shown in twelve cinema screens across Cairo and will include films from countries all over the world. Mobinil and OTH are committed to making sure that this year's festival is the most successful one yet, and have thus taken a number of steps towards ensuring that Egypt regains its status as the Middle East's cultural hub. OTH has invited a significant contingent of international celebrities including Danny Glover, Jacqueline Bisset, Charles Aznavour, Mia Maestro, Gabrielle Union, Manuela Arcuri and Hugh Hudson. OTH is also ensuring international television press coverage to 240 million television households worldwide while also sponsoring the CIFF Film Market. Mobinil is providing outdoor adverts as well as radio and TV commercials supporting the festival and has begun an SMS campaign (both text and voice) encouraging the company's subscribers to attend film viewings. Mobinil and OTH are also hosting a special press conference and gala dinner in support of the festival and in honour of the attending celebrities. Commenting on Mobinil and OTH's sponsorship of the festival, Naguib Sawiris, Chairman and CEO of Orascom Telecom Holdings and Chairman of Mobinil, said: "We want to make the Cairo International Film Festival truly unique this year. Egypt has always been the cultural and artistic heart of the region, and we intend to help it continue to remain so." Alex Shalaby, President and CEO of Mobinil, added his sentiments saying: "Our main goal this year is to launch a renaissance in the Egyptian movie industry. The general public has always been the key to any festival's success, and we will do everything we can to bring in Egyptian viewers and increase attendance at the festival." The sponsorship of the CIFF is the latest in Mobinil's initiatives to support art and culture in Egypt and over the last eight years the company has participated in numerous cultural programmes. The support of Egyptian art and culture has been a hallmark of the company since it was set up and during the first year of Mobinil's operation the company was a sponsor of Opera Aida in 1998. Mobinil is also a sponsor of the Sawy Cultural Wheel, the biggest centre for cultural activities in Cairo, which hosted the Naguib Mahfouz eulogistic ceremony in late September.
