US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo will visit Istanbul Tuesday to focus on "religious freedom." He will not meet with Turkish officials, despite his assertion that he wants to "persuade" them to stop their "hostile" moves.

Pompeo began this visit, which has drawn criticism from Ankara, by meeting with the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople, Bartholomew I, the spiritual leader of the Orthodox Church, at the headquarters of the Patriarchate before touring the nearby Rustem Pasha Mosque.

The US Secretary of State will discuss "religious issues in Turkey and the region and confirm the firm position" of the United States on these issues, which Pompeo made his top priority.

An American official told reporters, "There are definitely things we can discuss" in the area of religious freedom in Turkey, implicitly criticizing the nation.

Turkey sparked a wave of criticism in the Christian world in July by converting the former Hagia Sophia Cathedral, which is classified as a world heritage site, into a mosque after it had previously been converted into a museum.

A small group of demonstrators protested at the invitation of a national assembly near the Patriarchate headquarters to Pompeo's visit and chanted, "Yankee, go back to your country," according to an AFP photographer.

The Turkish Foreign Ministry expressed its dissatisfaction with Pompeo's visit program, stressing that religious freedom is "protected" in Turkey. Ankara said, "It would be more appropriate for the United States to look in the mirror and think about racism, Islamophobia and hate crimes on its territory."

The foreign minister only wanted to visit Istanbul to see the patriarch and was not ready to meet Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his counterpart Mevlut Cavusoglu unless they came to the city without having to go to the capital, Ankara.

After intense consultations, it seemed that a meeting might be possible, but the efforts failed in the end.

It is difficult to know whether the election of Joe Biden as president of the United States, who was congratulated by Erdogan even though he was considered a "friend" of Donald Trump, who refused to admit his defeat, played a role in this matter.

- 'Very likely' penalties -

The reality is that Mike Pompeo will not be able to discuss with the Turkish authorities the many differences he noted at the conclusion of a meeting he held in Paris with French President Emmanuel Macron.

"President Macron and I spent a lot of time discussing Turkey's recent actions, and we agreed that they were very hostile," he told the French newspaper Le Figaro.

He especially referred to "Turkey's support for Azerbaijan" and "the fact that it has planted Syrian forces in the region as well," referring to Syrian mercenaries which Yerevan confirmed that Ankara sent to support the Azerbaijani forces in Nagorny Karabakh.

"We also discussed what Turkey is doing in Libya, where it has also introduced forces from other countries, and its actions in the eastern Mediterranean, and the list goes on," he added.

The American Secretary stressed that his country's position is that "the internationalization of these conflicts is harmful and harmful to all concerned countries. Therefore, we called on all countries to stop their interference in Libya, whether it is Russia, Turkey, or someone else."

"The same thing is in Azerbaijan," he added, as "the increasing use of Turkish military capabilities worries us."

Pompeo said that "Europe and the United States must work together to convince Erdogan that such actions are not in the interest of his people."

These issues add to the disagreements over Ankara's purchase of the Russian S-400 missile system, which, according to US law, is supposed to lead to US sanctions, but Turkey got a delay from Trump, who was apparently keen to maintain his good relationship with Erdogan.

But the Turkish military has now tested the S-400s, a red line for the US.

Recently, the State Department warned that "sanctions are being considered" and that it is "a very real possibility."

After Turkey, the US Secretary of State will head to Georgia, then Occupied Jerusalem, and then to the Gulf states, including Saudi Arabia and the UAE, which are opposed to Iran. According to the New York Times, Trump discussed last week with senior US officials the possibility of a strike against an Iranian nuclear site, but it seems that they convinced him not to do so.