ABSTRACT
Over the last century, relations between Europe and Turkey have gradually improved and reached a point when Turkey’s admission to the European Union looks nearer than ever. At least, this is what many are hoping who value Turkey’s strategic position and its contribution to Europe’s defence. Others wish to delay the process. They require that first the country fully complies with the rules of the European convention on human rights, the key to Europe’s integration since World War II. In short, the question of Turkey’s place within Europe still remains a difficult subject. There are many other sensitive issues related as well to the tensions between Christian Europe and the Muslim world. These need to be treated with care and tact. This even applies to examples taken from the past, such as the crusades propagated by Christian popes and princes against Muslims in Asia and Africa. Pope Pius II,2 who tried to unite Christian Europe for a holy war against the Ottomans in the fifteenth century, is no exception. No matter whether his wish to counter their advance in Europe and regain Constantinople and all the Christian provinces taken by the Ottomans was justified, for many, the mere thought of a crusade is revolting. Pius’s writings, though, offer other aspects that are fascinating because of their relevance to the modern discussion. This is especially true for the pope’s letter to Sultan Mehmed II (1461/2), in which an imperial crown is offered to that conqueror of Constantinople. Pius’s aim was the ‘unification’ of Mehmed’s Empire and ‘Christian Europe’; but like the EU today, Pius stipulated one condition: that the sultan exchanged his Muslim for the Christian faith and allow himself to be baptised. A little water would make him the greatest, mightiest and most famous man.3
