POPE Francis will travel to Turkey next month, his first visit to the predominantly Muslim country which has become a refuge for Christians fleeing Islamic State militants in neighbouring Syria and in Iraq.
During his three-day visit, the pope will meet with Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan and Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu.
He will also meet Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I, the Istanbul-based spiritual leader of the Orthodox churches that make up the second-largest Christian church family after Roman Catholicism.
A Vatican spokesman said: "The Holy Father will visit Ankara and Istanbul from November 28 to November 30."
Islamic State militants have killed or driven out large numbers of Christians, Shi'ite Muslims and others who do not subscribe to their hardline version of Sunni Islam.
Many have fled to Turkey, along with tens of thousands of Syrian Kurds who left as Islamic State forces seized dozens of their villages close to the border.
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