Turkish and Saudi officials signed a new protocol for the annual Muslim pilgrimage Hajj for 2024.
Ali Erbaş, head of the Presidency of Religious Affairs (Diyanet), signed the protocol that allows Turkish citizens to travel to Saudi Arabia for the pilgrimage with the Saudi Minister of Hajj and Umrah Tawfig al-Rabiah on Sunday in Jeddah. The two officials assessed the work to facilitate the faithful's access to Hajj sites in 2023, while Erbaş requested Saudi Arabia to increase the quota of Turkish pilgrims allowed every year. For his part, al-Rabiah said they were working, to that extent, to increase the number of pilgrims both for Hajj and for Umrah, a lesser pilgrimage that can be performed at any time of the year.
Under the current protocol, Saudi Arabia will allow 83,430 pilgrims from Türkiye in this year's Hajj. Due to the overwhelming number of pilgrims visiting the country every year, Saudi Arabia imposes quotas for every country.
The signing of the protocol comes amid claims of a dispute between Türkiye and Saudi Arabia, which recently normalized their relations. The Presidency's Directorate of Communications denied the claims last week that the Saudi crown prince will prohibit Turkish citizens from doing their Hajj.
In a weekly bulletin, the directorate's Center for Combatting Disinformation debunked claims linked to a postponed Turkish football match, originally scheduled to be played in Riyadh, the Saudi capital, in the last week of December.
"The Turkish Football Federation (TFF) proposed and prepared an offer to provide additional income to the Fenerbahçe and Galatasaray clubs for the Super Cup final. The presidents of the two clubs granted verbal authorization to the TFF for the cup final in August 2023," said the bulletin.
"The decision to play the 2023 Turkcell Super Cup match in Saudi Arabia, which made the best bid, was entirely determined and organized by the clubs and the TFF through a joint decision. Before the event, an agreement was reached between the TFF and Saudi officials on Oct. 20, 2023, regarding the protocols to be followed on the field and in the stands."
The bulletin said that after the joint decision, the match was set to be played on Dec. 29, and the contract explicitly mentioned that the rules of FIFA, AFC, UEFA and other international football regulatory and governing bodies would apply.
"Despite the match not being a national game, the TFF and Saudi officials agreed to play the Turkish National Anthem and use Turkish flags for the 100th anniversary of the Republic of Türkiye. The clubs requested the addition of the agreement made between the TFF and Saudi officials, stating that, just before the match, teams would warm up on the field wearing Mustafa Kemal Atatürk T-shirts and carrying banners with the words of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk," it said, referring to the founding father of the Turkish republic.
According to the report, the Saudi officials did not agree to add these pre-match requests to the existing protocol, citing international regulations and arrangements based on the previous agreement with the TFF.
"As a result of these developments, the issue gained attention in the Turkish public on social media and disinformation was spread on this matter," it added.
On the false claims of "Turkish citizens being banned from the Hajj," the directorate said: "There is no official statement or decision from either country that could prevent Turkish citizens from going to Saudi Arabia to fulfill their Hajj rituals."
The annual Hajj pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia is a religious obligation for Muslims, who must make the journey at least once in their life if financially and physically feasible.
Considered the fifth pillar of Islam, the Hajj is intended to demonstrate the solidarity of Muslims and their submission to Allah.
While the Hajj is generally associated with Islam's final prophet, Muhammad, who lived in the seventh century, Muslims believe that the pilgrimage to Mecca dates back thousands of years to pre-Islamic times.
The pilgrimage takes place every year from the eighth to the 12th day of Dhul al-Hijjah, the 12th and final month of the Islamic calendar.
On these five days, pilgrims converge on Mecca, where they circumambulate the Kaaba seven times, run between the hills of Al-Safa and Al-Marwah, drink water from the sacred well of Zamzam, stand vigil on the plains of Mount Arafat and pelt the "devil" with stones at Jamarat.
Pilgrims then cut their hair and sacrifice an animal (meat from which is traditionally distributed to the poor) before celebrating Eid al-Adha, or the Festival of Sacrifice.
Since the Islamic calendar is based on the lunar cycle, the date of the Hajj changes each year on Western calendars.
