Pope Leo XIV landed in Ankara, Turkey and headed directly for the Ataturk Mausoleum to place a wreath on the tomb of the founder of the Turkish Republic.

Mustafa Kemal Ataturk was the first president of the republic and is known for creating the modern Turkish republic as a lay state, adopting western systems including granting women the right to vote and removing requirement for women to cover their heads.

Leo was escorted into the Mausoleum by an honor guard carrying a red and white wreath with the words Papa Leo XIV.

Leo strolled along a path lined with statues of lions — the Lion Path — behind a military detachment carrying a red-and-while floral tribute bearing his papal title.

He later laid the floral arrangement bearing the colors of the Turkish flag in front of the marble grave with the help of two honor guards and observed a minute a silence.

Following the visit the pontiff was whisked off to the presidential palace for a meeting with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Pope Leo XIV is on his first foreign trip to Turkey and later Lebanon, marking an important Christian anniversary and bringing a message of peace to the region at a crucial time for efforts to end the war in Ukraine and ease Mideast tensions.

Leo’s main reason for traveling to Turkey is to mark the 1,700th anniversary of the Council of Nicaea, Christianity’s first ecumenical council.

In A.D. 325, that council hashed out the first version of the Nicene Creed, a statement of faith that millions of Christians still recite each Sunday.

On Friday, Leo will join Istanbul-based Greek Orthodox Patriarch Bartholomew to commemorate the anniversary, which took place in today’s Iznik, some 90 kilometers (54 miles) southeast of Istanbul.

Leo is the fifth Pope to visit Turkey after Paul VI, John Paul II, Benedict XIV and Pope Francis.

The Pope’s trip comes at a particularly fraught period in the Middle East with a delicate cease-fire in Gaza and recent Israeli strikes in both Beirut and southern Lebanon.