TURKEY: Pope's would-be assasin compares Vatican with Al Qaeda, calling pope to resign

Record ID: 566535

  • Title: TURKEY: Pope's would-be assasin compares Vatican with Al Qaeda, calling pope to resign
  • Date: 30th March 2010
  • Summary: ISTANBUL, TURKEY (MARCH 29, 2010) (REUTERS) MEHMET ALI AGCA ARRIVING FOR NEWS CONFERENCE JOURNALISTS (SOUNDBITE) (English) POPE JOHN PAUL'S WOULD-BE ASSASSIN MEHMET ALI AGCA, SAYING "Al Qaeda and Osama Bin Laden are the enemy of religions. They don't belong to any religion. They are the same, that is all." JOURNALISTS (SOUNDBITE) (English) POPE'S WOULD-BE ASSASSIN MEHMET ALI AGCA, SAYING: "The Vatican must go out of the world history as the Soviet Union. It is enough, just two thousand years, you deceived the world." JOURNALISTS SOUNDBITE (Turkish), POPE'S WOULD-BE ASSASSIN MEHMET ALI AGCA, SAYING: "Christian journalists, artists, the public asks for the arrest of the Pope. I do not want him to be arrested but to resign and an Italian or a Latin American pope must be elected." JOURNALISTS AGCA LEAVING NEWS CONFERENCE
  • Embargoed: 14th April 2010 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Turkey
  • Country: Turkey
  • Topics: Religion
  • Reuters ID: LVA1QJ4KP7I52TD3C1S9UXXQFIWV
  • Story Text: Pope John Paul's would-be assassin Mehmet Ali Agca appeared in front of journalists on Monday (March 29) for the first time following his release from jail two months ago.
    Agca who arrived at a news conference with articles from newspapers and covers of Time magazine, once again proclaimed the end of the world, calling himself, the "spokesperson" of God.
    Agca, accusing the Vatican of lying to the world for two thousand years with a fake gospel, said the truth will be revealed after he finishes writing his own gospel.
    Agca said the Vatican resembles al Qaeda and that the Pope must resign.
    "Al Qaeda and Osama Bin Laden are the enemy of religions. They don't belong to any religion. They are the same," Agca said.
    "The Vatican must go out of the world history as the Soviet Union. It is enough, just 2 thousand years, you deceived the world," Agca added.
    Mehmet Ali Agca, the man who tried to kill Pope John Paul in 1981, was released from prison in the Turkish capital Ankara on January.
    Mehmet Ali Agca was born on Jan. 9, 1958 to a poor Turkish family. As a boy, he was involved in petty crime and smuggling between Turkey and Bulgaria. He became a member of the militant far-right Grey Wolves group as a teenager.
    In 1979, he murdered Abdi Ipekci, a left-wing journalist. He was sentenced to life in prison but escaped with the help of right-wing comrades after six months and fled to Bulgaria.
    On May 13, 1981, Agca shot Pope John Paul several times while the pope rode in an open jeep at the start of his weekly audience in St Peter's Square.
    Agca was immediately apprehended and arrested. The pope narrowly survived and spent weeks in hospital. Three days after the shooting, he forgave Agca during a live radio broadcast from his hospital bed.
    In July, 1981, an Italian court found Agca guilty of trying to assassinate the Pope and sentenced him to life in prison. - In December, 1983, the pope visited him in his Rome jail cell and they chatted privately. The contents of that conversation were never disclosed.
    In June 2000, Italy pardoned Agca for the Pope's shooting and extradited him to his native Turkey to serve the remainder of his term for the Ipekci murder.
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