Muslim-majority Turkey, which is hosting Pope Leo XIV on his first overseas trip as pontiff, is not "a hostile environment" for Christians, the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople told AFP in an interview.

"It is simplistic to see adversaries everywhere and to imagine the pope's visit as taking sides in a hostile environment," said Patriarch Bartholomew I, leader of the world's 260 million Orthodox Christians.

On Friday, Bartholomew joins Leo for celebrations in Iznik, around two hours from Istanbul, to mark 1,700 years since the First Council of Nicaea, a key early Church gathering that resulted in a statement of faith still central to Christianity.

After arriving in Ankara on Thursday and meeting President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, whom critics have accused of wanting to Islamise socie

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