Pope Francis begins trip to Turkey On his visit to the Albanian capital, Tirana, he said that "authentic religious spirit is being perverted" in many parts of the world. Since being elected in March last year, the Pope has frequently expressed concern that Christian communities which have existed in the Middle East for 2,000 years are in danger of being wiped out forever. That has made him a target for Isil, according to some observers, including Iraq's ambassador to the Holy See, who two months ago said that the terrorist group "wants to kill the Pope." I believe they could try to kill him during one of his overseas trips or even in Rome. There are members of Isis who are not Arabs but Canadian, American, French, British, also Italians. "Isil could engage any of these to commit a terrorist attack in Europe," said Habeeb Al Sadr. The ambassador said the Pope had made himself a target by speaking out against the human rights abuses committed against Christians in Syria and Iraq, as well as by his approval of attempts by the US to try to roll back Isil. The Vatican has insisted that there are no specific threats against the Pope's life and that it is not unduly concerned about his safety on the visit to Turkey, the sixth international trip of his papacy. The Popemobile will not see service in Turkey as the crowds are not expected to be huge (Reuters) The Pope will not use his Pope-mobile in Turkey, not because of security fears but because there are so few Christians in the country - around 99 per cent of Turks are Muslim - and so the crowds that welcome him will be small. He will visit the famous Blue Mosque, also known as the Sultan Ahmed Mosque, as well as Hagia Sophia, which was once the cathedral of Constantinople, then a mosque after 1453, and since the time of Ataturk has been a museum. A large part of the trip is intended to cement relations with Orthodox Christians, and the Pope will meet Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I, the 270th Archbishop of Constantinople and the head of the Eastern Orthodox Church. The split between the Roman Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox Church, known as the Great Schism, dates back to 1054, and the breach has never been healed. Pope Francis will face diplomatic awkwardness right at the start of the trip. He will be given an official reception by President Erdogan in an enormous palace that was recently completed outside Ankara. Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan in his conntroversial Ak Saray palace (AFP/Getty) It has been criticised by many Turks as an outrageous waste of money and a sign of the president's increasingly autocratic rule, with an association of Turkish architects appealing to the Pope to boycott it. The Vatican has said that the Pope has no choice but to go to the £384 million palace, which is bigger than both the Kremlin and the White House, because he has been invited by the head of state. "When the Pope is invited somewhere, he goes wherever the president decides to receive him, as any other educated person would," said Father Federico Lombardi, the Vatican spokesman. He said the controversy over the palace had nothing to do with the Pope and that construction had started long before the papal trip was planned. This is not the first time that a Pope has visited Turkey. Similar trips were made by Paul VI in 1967, John Paul II in 1979 and Benedict XVI in 2006.