Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan will visit Pope Francis at the Vatican next month for talks likely to focus on the US recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.
"And it shall come to pass in that day, that I will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem." Zechariah 12:9 (KJV)
EDITOR'S NOTE: When it became apparent that Donald Trump was going to officially recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, Pope Francis called for urgent prayer that Jerusalem would remain divided and out of Israeli control. Now Turkish president Erdogan will meet with the anti-Israel pope in secret closed-door meetings to discuss what the Muslim response should be. Just as the Vatican had signed concordats with Hitler to help bring the Nazis to power and protect them, they are now aligning with the Muslims to conspire to give control of Jerusalem to the Palestinians.
The Turkish leader and head of the Roman Catholic Church both strongly opposed the move announced by US President Donald Trump at the end of last year.
Erdogan called Trump's recognition of Jerusalem a "bomb" which would inflame the Middle East and his top diplomat called for the recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Palestine.
Erdogan's first trip to the tiny state will be on February 5, the Vatican said. It follows phone calls between the two leaders who share concerns over the recognition of Israeli rights to Jerusalem and agree that the status quo should remain.
The Argentine-born pope met Erdogan during his trip to Turkey in November 2014. The return visit will be the first by a Turkish president since 1959.
Erdogan has expressed hope for a better relationship with the European Union after a fractious 2017, despite concerns over human rights violations in Turkey, particularly during the crackdown that followed a failed coup in July 2016.
Francis has repeatedly praised Turkey's efforts to welcome Syrian refugees and has said the country can be a "great peacemaker", while also warning against "fanaticism and fundamentalism".
But the relationship has not always been plain sailing: tensions flared in 2016 when the pope denounced the World War I killing of Armenians as a genocide, enraging Turkey, who has steadfastly denied there was a massacre of Armenians.
Armenians have long sought international recognition for the killings as genocide, but Turkey -- the Ottoman Empire's successor state -- argues that it was a collective tragedy in which both Turks and Armenians died.
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