President of Religious Affairs Erbaş holds a joint press conference with Saudi Arabian Minister of Hajj and Umrah Al-Rabiah

President of Religious Affairs Prof. Dr. Ali Erbaş met with Saudi Arabian Minister of Hajj and Umrah Tawfig Al-Rabiah.

After the meeting, President Erbaş and President Rabiah held a joint press conference.

In his speech, President Erbaş stated that he had witnessed closely services in the 2022 Hajj organizations realized after the epidemic and said, “The effort you made for the Hajj and Umrah visits in peace, health and safety by making use of the possibilities of technology is beyond all kinds of appreciation.”

President Erbaş thanked King Salman bin Abdulaziz, Mohammed bin Salman and the Minister of Hajj and Umrah Tawfig Al-Rabiah and his colleagues for the services made for Muslims who came for the Hajj worship.

President Erbaş expressed that Hajj and Umrah organization requires a great experience and devotion and said, “This organization has many visible and invisible aspects, challenges and areas of work. Of course, every country have its own planning and unique roadmap in its own conditions. In the meantime, both the countries and the departments that are actors in the organization are in a correct and healthy relationship to each other is of vital importance.”

“We are in an effort to provide better services to our hajjis by renewing ourselves every year”

President Erbaş pointed out that Turkiye has an important experience and quality in Hajj and Umrah services and said:

“We are in an effort to provide better services to our hajjis and to the citizens who went for Umrah by renewing ourselves every year according to changing conditions and evolving opportunities. At this point, it is of vital importance that we come together and negotiate to improve our cooperation in all areas and find common solutions to the problems that have arisen.

In this regard, we consider your personal visit to our country with a distinguished delegation to be extremely important and valuable. We see this meaningful visit as an opportunity to discuss in detail many issues related to Hajj and Umrah services and to share our knowledge, experiences and approaches.”

President Erbaş also gave information about the meeting between the delegations and said, “We confer on Umrah organizations that started in Shawwal and we hold a consultation about cooperation in organizing Hajj and Umrah in 2023.By signing a Hajj Protocol in Jeddah in January regarding the 2023 Hajj organization, we agreed that the quota and other matters related to Hajj work and transactions will be clarified in this protocol."

“Millions of brothers wait excitedly to go to the holy land”

President Erbaş stated that millions of Muslim all over the world are very excited to visit the Mubarak places and said, “There is a great interest in Hajj and Umrah in our country. Today, millions of brothers wait excitedly to go to the holy land. We try very hard to fulfill these desires of our citizens and to ensure that they worship in the most beautiful way.”

President Erbaş stated that the Presidency of Religious Affairs especially care about the young people visiting Haramayn and said, “Because visiting the lands where Islam was born has important impact on the minds and hearts of young people. Meeting people from all over the world with the same goals and feelings in the same place has a positive impact on the construction of identity, personality and belonging to young people. Having this experience at a young age increases their awareness of worshiping Allah, and increases consciousness of the Ummah, which expresses the universal existence of Muslims.”

Rabiah: “We take measures which will facilitate worship of Hajj”

Saudi Arabian Minister of Hajj and Umrah Tawfig Al-Rabiah also thanked President Erbaş for the hospitality he shows.

Rabiah expressed that they increased the qualification at the point of prospective hajjis who made visits for Hajj and Umrah to visit historical places and servicing them and said, they take measures which will facilitate worship of Hajj.

"We have allocated a budget of 200 billion for the expansion of the Temple Mount (Haram-i Sharif)"

Rabia said that, “I would like to express that with a budget of over 200 billion, this is the largest expansion of the Temple Mount. Our expansion work on the Prophet Muhammad’s Al-Masjid an-Nabawi continues.”

Rabiah drew attention to the fact that Hajj and Umrah activities are carried out in cooperation between the government and the private sector and said:

“One of the steps taken was to facilitate the fulfillment of Umrah and Hajj obligations from different parts of the world wishing to come to Saudi Arabia through digital transformation works and projects. In this sense, studies were conducted to facilitate the transitions of visas to Saudi Arabia, both to Madinah Al Munawwarah and to any other region of Saudi Arabia in terms of visas and other transactions. The Umrah visa was extended from 30 to 90 days. This is not just for Mecca and Medina. If a person wants to visit any place in Saudi Arabia, they can benefit from these facilities in the same way. I want to express that we will try to fulfill all these demands of the Republic of Turkiye, which is a friend and brother country.”

“We host visitors coming from Turkiye in the best way possible”

Rabiah expressed that they will provide facilitation in visa obtaining to Turkiye and said, “I would like to express that we will host visitors coming from Republic of Turkiye in the best way possible and that all our brothers coming from Turkiye will be treated as required and facilitative transactions will be made.”

“Turkish prospective hajjis will be serviced in Turkish language”

Rabiah talked about the Saudi Arabia’s new project directed to Turkish prospective hajjis and expressed that they realized the project which will help Turkish prospective hajjis in Turkish language in every services such as both for the visa obtaining and accommodation.

Rabiah stated that they hosted Turkish hajjis over than 37 thousand in 2022 Hajj period and gave the good news that the Hajj and Umrah procedures will be the same this year as before the pandemic.

President Erbaş answered the questions of the journalists after the speeches.

President Erbaş, “There will be great developments in 5-6 years”

President Erbaş referred to 2030 vision of Saudi Arabia’s Hajj and Umrah organizations and said, “This gives us more hope for the future. The fact that the Saudi Arabian Hajj Ministry has informed us that there will be great developments in both Hajj and Umrah in the next 5 to 6 years made us very pleased.”

“2 million 266 thousand prospective hajjis pre-registered”

President Erbaş stated that there is a lot of demand from the citizens regarding Hajj and Umrah and said, “So far, 2 million 266 thousand prospective hajjis have pre-registered. Therefore, I think that if we can choose our 85 thousand quota for the year 2023 by lot, 2 million 170 thousand prospective hajjis will have to wait. So there is that much demand.”

Vice President of Religious Affairs Assoc. Dr. Selim Argun, General Manager of Hajj and Umrah Remzi Bircan, General Manager of Religious Publications Assoc. Dr. Fatih Kurt, Human Resources General Manager Akif Pusmaz, President of Guidance and Inspection Hasan Güçlü and Istanbul Provincial Mufti Prof. Dr. Safi Arpaguş were attended to the meeting.