The latest target of his displeasure is Pope Benedict XVI. Kerincsiz has led an energetic campaign to halt the visit of the 79-year-old pontiff, arriving on Tuesday, on the grounds that it is part of a “foreign plot” against Turkey. Not only had the Pope insulted Islam in a speech he made in September, Kerincsiz said, but he was planning a “provocative” meeting in Istanbul with the head of Orthodox Christianity. “We do not want him here. He should not come.”

Behind him on his office wall was a poster of the Pope as a fanged serpent which Kerincsiz has been handing out to supporters. He has also been bombarding government offices with “Stop the Pope” e-mails and faxes. Today he will attend a big demonstration against the Pope in Istanbul.

The Pope could hardly have picked a trickier moment for his visit, just as debate is reaching a bitter climax over whether to let Turkey and its 70m, predominantly Muslim, citizens into the European Union.

America and Britain are strongly in favour of keeping Turkey firmly in the western fold but Kerincsiz and his Lawyers’ Union are part of a nationalist movement trying to pull it in the other direction. Recent events, from the Pope’s comments about Islam to French efforts to outlaw denial of the Turkish massacre of Armenians at the end of the first world war, have worked in their favour.

The ultimate goal is to revive the Ottoman empire but, for the time being, they must content themselves with a campaign to defend Turkey against enemies.

It was Kerincsiz who brought a lawsuit against Orhan Pamuk, the Nobel prize-winning author, earlier this year for accusing Turkey of genocide against Armenians. “The Armenians were deported, not killed,” he insisted.

All of this risks jeopardising the country’s drive to modernity and it is little surprise that talks with the EU on Turkish membership have recently turned sour.

An increasingly impatient Brussels has repeatedly called on Turkey to repeal article 301, the law being used by Kerincsiz to attack freedom of speech. On Thursday, in a development unlikely to cheer the Pope, two Christians went on trial under article 301 for insulting “Turkishness” and inciting religious hatred while trying to convert Turks to Christianity.

Brussels has given Turkey until December 6 to let Cypriot ships into its ports or risk seeing its application for EU membership rejected. This has put Turks in an angry sulk over the “crusader mentality” of the Europeans, hardly an encouraging context for a papal visit.

The Pope once warned that letting Turkey into the EU would be “a grave error against the tide of history” and he has become, for many, a symbol of western hostility towards Turkey.

For Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the moderate prime minister, it is an extremely unwelcome predicament. An election is looming next year and in order not to alienate voters he has pleaded a prior engagement — a Nato summit in Riga — to avoid going anywhere near the Pope.

Muslim protests against the pontiff will not go down well in Brussels, reviving perennial speculation about the threat to the strong, secular democracy established by Atatürk, the founder of modern Turkey.

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