Turkish Hijackers Trying to Stop Papal Visit

Hijacking marks a new stage in attempts to stop papal visit to Turkey. Turkish papers today report al-Qaeda’s death threats against any Muslim who dares meeting Benedict XVI.

Ankara (AsiaNews) – A Turkish airliner was hijacked and flown to Brindisi (Italy). The hijackers said they were non violent and simply wanted to give the Pope a message in an apparent protest against him. Turkish TV media reported that the two men took over the plane in protest against the Pontiff’s visit to Turkey in late November.

Benedict XVI, who was invited by the ecumenical patriarch of Constantinople and the Turkish goverment, is scheduled to travel to that country at a time of rising nationalist and fundamentalist tensions fuelled by groups opposed to the visit.

Sources in Turkey told AsiaNews that all Turkish papers have reprinted a message from al-Qaeda which threatens death against any Turkish Muslim who dares come close to the Pope or meet him.

In recent weeks a book was published with a very telling title: Attack against the Pope: Who Will Kill Benedict XVI in Istanbul? The publication comes at a time when threats and violent acts against Catholic priests and churches are becoming signs of tensions in a nation that is slowly moving away from an affected secularism towards a form of nationalism in which “Turkish” and “Muslim” become one and the same.

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UPDATE
From same source as the story above:

A strange hijacking

Ankara (AsiaNews) – Hasan Hekinci, the man arrested yesterday by Italian police for hijacking a Turkish Airlines flight, did not want to protest against the visit of Benedict XVI to Turkey. The clarification came from a member of the Ankara government, the Transport Minister, Binali Yildrim, who said the hijacker was seeking to escape military service, asking for political asylum in Italy after vainly seeking refuge in Albania.

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UPDATE # 2
The American Papist discusses the changing (and now seemingly disappearing) headlines concerning the Turkish highjacking. Interesting.