In a message published on X on Monday, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan of Türkiye paid tribute to Pope Francis as a "respected statesman" who "valued dialogue between different faith groups."
The President of Türkiye, a country with a predominantly Sunni Muslim population that hosted Pope Francis in November 2014, also referred to the Pope’s initiatives in the face of human tragedies, especially the Palestinian issue and the genocide in Gaza.