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The Turkish gunman who shot Saint John Paul II in the 1981 assassination attempt has seen his request to meet the current Pope ignored. Mehmet Ali Agca, who was jailed for 19 years for the shooting, asked the Vatican last week for permission to meet Pope Francis during his upcoming visit to Turkey, local media reported.

Speaking at a press conference in Istanbul yesterday, Agca said he had not yet received a response from the Holy See — the central governing body of the Roman Catholic Church.

Mehmet Ali Agca shot Pope John Paul II four times as he rode in an open top car in St. Peter’s Square on May 13, 1981.

He spent 19 years in an Italian prison for the assassination attempt — before being extradited to Turkey in 2000 — where he was jailed for a further 10 years for the murder of prominent left-wing journalist Abdi Ipekci.

Agca had already been jailed for this crime when he attempted to kill the Pope — and was on the run from Turkish authorities after escaping from prison six months into his sentence.

Believed by many to be mentally disturbed, he was released from a prison in the Turkish capital of Ankara in 2010 after serving nearly three decades behind bars.

During the shocking 1981 attack, Pope John Paul II suffered severe blood loss after being shot four times.

Two bullets struck his left hand and right arm while another two lodged in his lower intestine, narrowly missing his heart and other vital organs. Two bystanders were also hit by stray bullets.

The motive for the attack remains a mystery but at the time the 23-year-old was a militant of the notorious far-right Grey Wolves movement.

When police seized him, they found a letter in his pocket which read: “I have killed the Pope so that the world may know of the thousands of victims of imperialism.”

A number of theories have been put forward about who was behind the assassination attempt.

An official inquiry blamed Soviet-sponsored assassins — who wanted the Pope dead because of his support for the democracy movement Solidarity.

But in 2011 Polish communist leader General Wojciech Jaruzelski, who died this year aged 90, claimed that Islamic fanatics sponsored the would-be assassination.

“Radical Islam detested the pope and saw in him a leader of crusades,” he told Poland’s ‘Jezus’ Catholic magazine. In 1983, John Paul II famously pardoned Agca and even visited him in his cell in Rome.

Speaking about his desired meeting, Agca said: “I’ve asked the Vatican unofficially to meet with Pope Francis but I haven’t received any response yet.

“While the world has been experiencing a big economic, political and humanitarian crisis, Pope Francis — who is exerting efforts to build peace and brotherhood — welcome to Turkey.”

The Pope is due to visit Turkey for the first time from November 28-30, during which time he will meet President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu.

The trip follows a series of security threats involving ISIS and the 77-year-old Argentinian pontiff will seek to emphasise his commitment to improving relations between Muslims and other Christians.

Tomorrow, he is due to give a speech on the issue — and his visit comes at a time of increased violence against Christian minorities in the region.

Habeeb Al Sadr, Iraq’s Ambassador to the Vatican, said in September that there were indications of an ISIS threat against the Pope. After expressing support for US airstrikes against ISIS the ambassador said during one of his trips abroad that the Pope could be targeted.

This week the Vatican was said to be stepping up security following concerns about a possible drone attack in St. Peter’s. — DailyMail.