The Ramadan Bayram celebrations in Turkey's Mardin, which is known as the "city of tolerance," brought together Turkish and Syriac Turkish citizens to mark the end of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan.
The program for the bayram, which is also known as Eid al-Fitr, was held at the Atatürk Cultural Center in Mardin, where citizens of different languages and religions have lived peacefully together for many years.
The Syriac community, a Christian group concentrated in southeastern Turkey, has seen its numbers rise again in recent years with those who emigrated to other cities and countries returning.
The Deyrülzafaran Monastery Metropolitan Saliba Özmen, Kırklar Church Archbishop Gabriel Akyüz, and members of the Syriac community also attended the program.
Mardin Governor Mahmut Demirtaş explained that they were delighted to celebrate bayram after the COVID-19 pandemic and that the citizens were breathing a sigh of relief.
Expressing that they miss these days and that the bayram celebrations were spent in peace, "On the one hand, the restrictions have been lifted, and on the other hand, our Mardin has become a city of peace and security, with successful results from the operations carried out in the countryside against terrorist organizations. Thank God, our holiday passes in peace," he said.
Demirtaş stated that they were pleased to have members of different faiths attend the celebrations. "We will protect it by strengthening it in the best possible way," he added.
"Last week, we celebrated Easter together. Today we are together for Eid al-Fitr. We experience the same feelings. Our Mardin is a beautiful city with its languages, religions, cultures and enormous riches. As the people of Mardin, we are very lucky. I hope this will be the case forever. I congratulate the Eid of the entire Islamic world on my behalf and behalf of the Syriac community with my sincere wishes," Metropolitan Özmen said.
Many representatives of public institutions and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) and citizens attended the program.
