Pope Francis arrives in Turkey Pope Francis has arrived in Turkey at a sensitive moment for the Muslim nation, as it cares for 1.6 million refugees and weighs how to deal with the Islamic State group. Francis was expected to use his opening speeches on Friday to denounce the violence being committed in God's name by the extremists, and to express solidarity with the Christians and other religious minorities who have been targeted by the onslaught, massacred or forced to leave their homes. The pope was greeted by a line of Turkish dignitaries, headed by Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu, as he descended the steps of his plane at Ankara's Esenboga Airport. He inspected and greeted Turkish honour guards before heading to the mausoleum of the Turkish republic's founder, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, where he is scheduled to lay a wreath. Francis paid tribute to Turkey's willingness to host so many refugees during a brief encounter with journalists aboard the papal plane, praising its humanitarian response to "so many refugees from conflict zones." The three-day visit will give Francis a chance to reach out to Turkey's tiny Christian community - less than one per cent of Turks are Catholic - and visit with the spiritual leader of the world's Orthodox Christians, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I. Francis will tour two of Istanbul's most impressive sites, the Hagia Sofia complex - the Byzantine church-turned-mosque that is now a museum - and the nearby Sultan Ahmet mosque, Turkey's most important place of Muslim worship. Turkish media reports said some 2700 police officers would be on duty during the Ankara leg of the trip alone, and that a court had issued an order allowing police to stop and search cars and carry out random identity checks on people along routes used by the pope.