Head of Religious Affairs Directorate Ali Erbaş: ‘We did not report a single citizen in Mecca’

During the Hajj season, the President of Religious Affairs of Turkey, Ali Erbaş, stated that Turkish citizens did not complain about any issues in Mecca during the Hajj season regarding the practices of Saudi Arabia towards those who come to Mecca without a Hajj visa. When asked about the claim that Diyanet reports Turkish citizens to the Saudi authorities in Mecca, Erbaş reminded that last year there were significant problems with ‘unauthorized’ Hajj rituals with visas other than Hajj visas. He mentioned that during the preparations for the 2024 Hajj season, Saudi Arabia had officially requested that no one from certain countries should come without a visa, beyond the 0.1% quota allocated to countries. Erbaş emphasized that their only job was to announce strict measures during the Hajj period and they did not have the authority to tell anyone with a trade or travel visa not to go to Arabia. They made it clear that Hajj rituals cannot be performed with such trade or tourist visas. Turkish citizens faced great difficulties as a result. Erbaş reiterated that they did not take any action in Saudi Arabia. He pointed out that all the claims were completely false. He specifically emphasized that they did not complain about any Turkish citizen in Mecca. He stated that a video speech by Hüseyin Hoca, which is used as the basis for these claims, was made during a seminar held in the conference hall of the Presidency of Religious Affairs about evaluating the complaints in 2022, two months before the 2023 Hajj organization. He stressed that distorting these words from the speech to make it seem like complaints to the authorities in Saudi Arabia in 2024 is a complete distortion and a baseless accusation.