His visit to Turkey at the weekend Pope Francis examines the approach to the Greek Orthodox Church. But for eddy provides a scheduled visit to the new palace of President Erdogan.

On the program “courtesy visit to the President Recep Tayyip Erdogan” is simply a date among several that Pope Francis has to be completed after his arrival in Ankara on Friday. But the “courtesy call” outraged some in Turkey: The Pope will be the first head of state to prove Erdogan in his new palace honor.

The building is controversial: It was built in defiance of nature protection legislation in a wooded area. Court judgments, to stop the construction, were ignored. When the judges of the Supreme Administrative Court ruled in March against the building, Erdogan said only: “Let them tear him if they have the power to do so.”

Now the thousand-room palace Ak Saray is so because, called white palace, the critics prefer Kacak Saray, illegal palace call. The Architectural Association in Ankara even assumes that the structure is even greater. “There shall arise here a mosque with room for 4,000 people and a residence with 250 rooms,” says Tezcan Karakus Candan, President of the Chamber of Architects (read the full interview). This construction has about half a billion euros already twice as much cost as originally planned.

Visit to Turkey:”Problem does not affect the Pope”

In the name of the architect Candan has asked the Pope in a letter that he would “not participate in the planned ceremony in unauthorized building,” Candan writes. Finally, the visit could legitimize the construction afterwards.

From the Vatican says they will not comply with this request, but accept the invitation “of course”. “The Pope goes, as any polite man, to where it wants to receive the president,” said Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi. It’s just a “courtesy call”.

With voltage is now expected that the Pope to the dispute over the palace or the pomp with which Erdogan demonstrated his consciousness of power, manifested. It would not correspond with the diplomatic usage, but in this Pope, who is known for his unconventional way, it would be conceivable. He also sees itself as a representative of the poor, such a luxury is alien to him. From the Vatican you can hear the debate around the palace was a “problem that does not involve the Holy See or the Pope” anyway.

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