Pope Leo XIV has arrived in Turkey on his first foreign trip.

The journey fulfils the late Pope Francis’s plans to mark an important Orthodox anniversary and bring a message of peace to the region at a crucial time in efforts to end the war in Ukraine and ease Middle East tensions.

Leo’s charter plane landed at Ankara’s international airport ahead of a meeting with Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan and a speech to the country’s diplomatic corps.

He will then move on to Istanbul for three days of ecumenical and interfaith meetings that will be followed by the Lebanese leg of his trip.

The Pope was welcomed on the tarmac of Ankara’s Esenboga Airport by a military guard of honour.

Strolling along a turquoise carpet, he shook hands with tourism minister Mehmet Nuri Ersoy, other offic

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