Turkey opens gov’t division in command of Jerusalem tourism

Turkey has set up a tourism department in Jerusalem in the Turkish Directorate for Religious Affairs (Diyanet), the Turkish newspaper Yeni Safak reported on Saturday.

The Ministry of Umrah and Jerusalem visits will be in charge of tours to Jerusalem and Umrah tours that stop in Jerusalem. The Diyanet has also prepared a special guide for Jerusalem tours with history about the city and major landmarks.

The Jerusalem tours include visits to places of interest in Hebron, Bethlehem and Jaffa, among others.

Umrah is a voluntary Islamic pilgrimage to Mecca, similar to the Hajj pilgrimage, which can be carried out at any time and is slightly less demanding than the Hajj. Umrah tours that stop in Jerusalem have been organized by Turkey since 2015.

The Diyanet is a government agency responsible for managing religious affairs in Turkey and running thousands of institutions and projects around the world. The management has broad influence both inside and outside the country, with control over very large assets. The directorate’s budget in 2019 was estimated by the Turkish statistics institute TÜIK at around 1.87 billion US dollars and, according to Deutsche Welle, could have a total value that is far higher. Last year, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said at a session of the Turkish Parliament: “Jerusalem is our city.

“In this city, which we had to leave in tears during the First World War, it is still possible to discover traces of the Ottoman resistance. So Jerusalem is our city, a city of ours, ”said Erdoğan.

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Erdoğan added, “We consider it an honor on behalf of our country and our nation to express the rights of the oppressed Palestinian people on every platform we have lived with for centuries. With that understanding, we will both follow the Palestinian cause that is the bleeding wound of global conscience and the fall of Jerusalem to the end. “

Erdoğan has repeatedly called for increased visits by Muslims to Jerusalem and Al-Aqsa. In a speech on the reopening of Hagia Sophia as a mosque last year, Erdoğan described the move as a “harbinger of the liberation of the Al-Aqsa mosque”, according to the Anadolu Agency.

Tobias Siegal contributed to this report.