America’s first pope found a way to celebrate Thanksgiving indirectly: by making his first overseas visit to Turkey.

Leo was greeted on the tarmac of Ankara’s Esenboga Airport by a military guard of honor. Strolling across a turquoise carpet, he shook hands with Culture and Tourism Minister Mehmet Nuri Ersoy, other officials and senior Turkish Church officials.

Later, he planned a meeting with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and a speech to the country’s diplomatic corps. He will then travel to Istanbul on Thursday evening for three days of ecumenical and interfaith meetings which will be followed by the Lebanese part of his trip.

Speaking to reporters aboard his plane, Leo acknowledged the historic nature of his first trip abroad and said he was looking forward to it because of what it means for Christians and for world peace.

Leo said he knew this visit to commemorate a key ecumenical anniversary was important for Christians. But he said he hoped his broader message of peace would resonate around the world.

“We also hope to announce, convey and proclaim the importance of peace throughout the world. And invite all people to come together to seek greater unity, greater harmony and seek ways in which all men and women can truly be brothers and sisters despite differences, despite different religions, despite different beliefs.”

Leo’s visit comes as Turkey, a country of more than 85 million predominantly Sunni Muslims, presents itself as a key broker in peace negotiations over the conflicts in Ukraine and Gaza.

Ankara has hosted rounds of low-level talks between Russia and Ukraine and offered to participate in the stabilization force in Gaza to help maintain the fragile ceasefire, commitments Leo could applaud in his arrival speech.

Reaction in Türkiye

Turkey’s growing military clout, as NATO’s largest army after the United States, is pushing Western leaders closer to Erdogan, even as critics warn of his crackdown on the country’s main opposition party.

Although support for the Palestinians and an end to the war in Ukraine is widespread in Turkey, for Turks who face a persistent cost of living crisis due to market turmoil induced by domestic political upheavals, international politics is a secondary concern.

This could explain why Leo’s visit has largely escaped the attention of many people in Türkiye, at least outside the country’s small Christian community.

“I didn’t know he was coming. He is welcome,” said Sukran Celebi. “It would be nice if he called for world peace, but I don’t think it will change anything.”

Some said they believed the visit by history’s first American pope was intended to promote U.S. interests, or perhaps to push for the reopening of a Greek Orthodox religious seminary that has become a focal point in the fight for religious freedoms in Turkey.

“If the pope is visiting, it means America wants something from Turkey,” said Metin Erdem, owner of a musical instrument store in Istanbul’s tourist district of Galata.

Historic anniversary

The main reason Leo is traveling to Türkiye is to mark the 1,700th anniversary of the Council of Nicaea, Christianity’s first ecumenical council.

Leo will pray with Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, spiritual leader of the world’s Orthodox Christians, at the site of the 325 AD gathering in Iznik, northwest Turkey, and sign a joint declaration in a visible sign of Christian unity.

The Eastern and Western Churches were united until the Great Schism of 1054, a division precipitated largely by disagreements over the primacy of the pope.

Although the visit is timed for the important Catholic-Orthodox anniversary, it will also allow Leo to strengthen the Church’s relations with Muslims. Leo is scheduled to visit the Blue Mosque and chair an interfaith meeting in Istanbul.

Asgın Tunca, an imam at the Blue Mosque who will receive the pope, said the visit would help advance ties between Christians and Muslims and dispel popular prejudices about Islam.

“We want to reflect this image by showing the beauty of our religion through our hospitality – this is God’s command,” Tunca said.

Religious freedom in Türkiye

Since coming to power in 2002, Erdogan’s government has adopted reforms aimed at improving the rights of religious groups, including opening places of worship and returning confiscated property.

Yet some Christian groups face legal and bureaucratic problems when trying to register churches, according to a U.S. State Department report on religious freedoms.

The Catholic Church, which has about 33,000 members in Turkey, has no formal legal recognition in the country “and that is the source of many problems,” said the Rev. Paolo Pugliese, superior of Turkey’s Catholic Capuchin Friars.

“But the Catholic Church enjoys quite a notable importance because we have an international profile … and the pope is looking out for us,” he said.

Possible tensions

One of the most delicate moments of Leon’s visit will take place on Sunday, when he visits the Armenian Apostolic Cathedral in Istanbul. The cathedral has hosted every pope who has visited Turkey since Paul VI, with the exception of Francis who visited Turkey in 2014 when its patriarch was ill.

Francis visited him in hospital and, months later, angered Turkey in 2015 when he declared that the massacre of Armenians by Ottoman Turks was “the first genocide of the 20th century.” Turkey, which has long denied the existence of a genocide, recalled its ambassador to the Holy See in protest.

Leo tends to be much more cautious than Francis in his public comments, and using such terms on Turkish soil would trigger a diplomatic incident. But the Vatican is also going through a difficult time in its relations with Armenia, after its interfaith overtures to Azerbaijan were criticized.