The Atatürk revolution did not really ease relations, since it led to the suppression of the millet system, which had previously guaranteed the rights of Christian minorities that were split in Byzantine, Latin, Armenian, Syriac and Greek-Melkite ethnic lines.

It was only the second time a sitting Pope was known to have entered a mosque[11] and was part of his efforts to mend Muslim-Christian relations, but was overshadowed by the controversy surrounding lecture at Regensburg which was interpreted by some as an attempt to link Islam and violence.

[13] Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan visited the Vatican in February 2018 and had a meeting with Pope Francis at Apostal Palace.

The Ecumenical Patriarch who is based in current day İstanbul is not recognized as leader of the Eastern Orthodox by the Turkish government, which prefers to regard him as a local bishop.

In 2000, John Paul II officially recognized the Armenian genocide, an opposing position to that of the Turkish government which has deployed much of its political energies in having the events in Armenia remain unrecognized by the international community.

In the 2008-2009 Year of Saint-Paul, an agreement was reached between the two states in order to promote pilgrimages to Tarsus, the place that the apostle Paul was born.

Other important pilgrimage sites include Selçuk, the old city of Istanbul, İznik (Nicaea), Bergama, İzmir (Smyrna), Manisa and Trabzon.