Pope and patriarch condemn Mid-East \\\'persecution\\\'

Pope Francis and the spiritual leader of the world's Orthodox Christians have condemned the treatment of many Christians in the Middle East.
In a joint declaration, the Pope and Patriarch Bartholomew I said they could not resign themselves to a "Middle East without Christians".
On a three-day visit to Turkey, the pontiff discussed divisions between Catholics and Orthodox Christians. In Istanbul, he and the patriarch also called for peace in Ukraine.
Patriarch Bartholomew is the spiritual leader of the world's 250 million Orthodox Christians, whose Church broke with Rome in 1054 in a schism that divided the Christian world.
Constantinople, as the modern Turkish city of Istanbul was once known, was the centre of Orthodox Christianity until the Ottoman conquest in 1453.
Only around 120,000 Christians remain in Turkey, where the vast majority of the 80 million citizens are Muslims.
Pope Francis also called for an interfaith dialogue with Muslims to counter fanaticism and fundamentalism when he visited the Turkish capital, Ankara, according to a news agency.