Pope leaves Turkey after a four day visit

Pope Benedict XVI left Turkey on Friday, thus ending his first papal visit to a Muslim country. The visit came in a peaceful and diplomatic atmosphere even tough some extremists want to make the split between the east and the west broader but the Turkish officials welcomed the pope in the best way even after the declaration of this latter about Islam and its link with violence.

The pope walked down a red carpet before grabbing the Turkish airline flight for Rome. He said that most of the discussions he had were aiming to ease the Muslim anger over remarks he did last September about the prophet Mohamed (May peace be upon him) and he expressed his hope about this visit to bring peace and contribute to the dialogue between faiths.

The pope went in a mosque and took off his shoes to put in white slippers to show a kind of respect for Muslims before he joined Istanbul's head cleric Mustafa Cagrici in prayer under the towering dome of Istanbul's most famous mosque.

The visit to the mosque is the second papal one to a Muslim place of worship. The first was in 2001 when John Paul II visited a mosque in Syria.

Many Protestants showed their disapproval to the pope visit, screaming that this it is a provocation but Turkish riot police officers knew how to maintain security and control the rally.

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