Turkish nationalists are mobilising against Pope Leo XIV's upcoming visit to ancient Nicaea, now Iznik in Turkey.
"We are not in Byzantium here," declared the main speaker at a protest rally on Sunday in the western Turkish city of Bursa near Iznik.
With his visit to Nicaea, the Pope wants to unite the divided Christianity in order to take Istanbul - the former Constantinople - back from the Turkish Republic, warned the district chairwoman of the left-wing nationalist Fatherland Party, to which several dozen supporters of the party and its women's and youth organisations had gathered.
She announced that her party would prevent the Pope's planned visit to Iznik on Friday with protests on the spot if necessary.
Ecumenism, i.e. the unity of Christians, "is a lie and an American conspiracy", chanted the participants; they carried banners and placards with the slogan "Stop the ecumenical conspiracy".
Pope Leo XIV is visiting Turkey on his first trip abroad this week to celebrate the 1,700th anniversary of the First Ecumenical Council, which met in Nicaea in 325, together with the Orthodox Patriarch of Constantinople, Bartholomew I.
With a joint prayer in Iznik on Friday, the two church leaders want to recall the common ground in faith and reaffirm the will to overcome the thousand-year schism between the churches.