Word: ankara
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Turkish troops have occupied the northern half of the island since invading in 1974 in response to an increase in fighting between Greek and Turkish Cypriots sparked by an Athens-backed coup. But the international community has never recognized the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus that Ankara established, and it has existed in near total isolation ever since. "We will not make a move without it being matched," a Turkish Foreign Ministry official told Time last week. Finland, which currently holds the presidency of the E.U., tried to avert the current crisis by proposing that one Turkish Cypriot port...
Early last week, Turkish prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan had reason to be optimistic. During a meeting in Ankara, Pope Benedict XVI said he was in favor of Turkey joining the European Union. This reversed an opinion he had delivered previously as a Cardinal, saying the move would be "a grave error against history." But the good news was short-lived. Just days after the Pope's remarks, Olli Rehn, the E.U.'s Commissioner for Enlargement, recommended that the E.U. suspend a portion of Turkey's membership talks just 13 months after they began. The reason: Turkey's continued unwillingness...
...trip to Turkey in 1979 that Christians and Muslims must "recognize and develop the spiritual bonds that unite us." The most confrontational and politically charged word in fact came from Turkey's head of religious affairs Ali Bardakoglu who, in a speech during his meeting with Benedict in Ankara, warned against "Islamophobia." The Pope did not respond to this veiled swipe, and offered nothing of his own approaching the frank and sincere dialogue between the West and Islam that he'd called...
...spoke out strongly - and repeatedly - for religious freedom throughout the trip. The explicit softness in his approach to Islam allowed him to make an implicit plea for allowing religious minorities in Muslim countries - and everywhere - to freely practice their religion. On his first day, the Pope told diplomats in Ankara that religions must "not seek to exercise direct political power." On Thursday, he and Bartholomew I, Patriarch of Constantinople, leader of the tiny Orthodox community in Turkey, delivered a joint statement that insisted that religious "minorities must be protected, with their cultural traditions and the distinguishing features of their religion...
...Another ongoing bone of contention between Turkey and the Orthodox community is Ankara's refusal to recognise the patriarch as ecumenical, meaning head of the Orthodox Christian community worldwide. Turkey believes acknowledging this would be one step towards the patriarchate eventually demanding some form of autonomy on its territory, much like the Vatican. "The title ecumenical has accompanied the Patriarch for 15 centuries, it's not a 20th century invention," says Archbishop Demetrios of America. "It refers to a spiritual function...