Catholic leader pleads for peace in Turkey

Pope Francis is currently on a trip to Turkey for a three-day visit where he wishes to wrestle the problems of Christian Persecution in the Muslim world and deal with the division between Catholicism and Orthodxy.

Speaking at the start of the three-day trip, Pop Francis on Friday, November 28 decried the situation at the South of Turkey where Islamic insurgents have gone on rampage persecuting Shi'ite Muslims, Christians and others who do not share their ultra-radical brand of Sunni Islam.

During a speech which his spokesperson, Father Federico Lombardi, described as a very important speech on Muslim-Christian relations prior to his journey to Turkey, Pope Francis enjoined the leaders to be committed to the peace process and channel all energy into solving other problems like hunger and poverty instead of war.

"What is required is a concerted commitment on the part of all , is to enable resources to be directed, not to weaponry, but to the other noble battles worthy of man: the fight against hunger and sickness," he said during a meeting with Turkish President, Tayyip Erdogan.

The leader of the world's 1.2 billion Catholics called for inter-religious dialogue to end of all forms of fundamentalism and terrorism, and stressed the importance of freedom of religion and of expression.

"It is essential that all citizens - Muslim, Jewish and Christian - both in the provision and practice of the law, enjoy the same rights and respect the same duties," he said

Earlier in on Friday, the pop paid a visit to the tomb of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, who founded the modern secular Turkish state in 1923.

Francis travels to Istanbul today, Saturday, November 29 to meet Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, spiritual head of 300 million Orthodox Christians worldwide, as part of an effort to forge closer ties between the ancient western and eastern wings of Christianity.

Bartholomew's seat remains in Istanbul, a vestige of the Byzantine Empire, even as his flock in Turkey has dwindled to less than 3,000 among a population of 75 million Muslims.

The Pope is also to visit Istanbul’s Hagia Sophia, a Byzantine-era church that was turned into a mosque after the conquest of Constantinople in 1453 and now serves as a museum, and the Ottoman-era Sultan Ahmet mosque, also known as the Blue Mosque.

Some 2,700 police are set to supervise his visit in Ankara, a number that will rise to 7,000 in Istanbul.