Erbaş spoke at the press briefing held at the Hajj Administration Center of the Presidency of Religious Affairs in Mecca.
Erbaş said that pilgrimage is a form of worship that embodies the basic principles of Muslims' lives.
"Hajj is a journey to good morals. It is a worship in which values such as brotherhood, solidarity, sharing, patience and good morals are reinforced," Erbaş said.
Emphasizing that the pilgrimage is a resurrection with mercy under the guidance of revelation, Erbaş said, "Hajj is to reconstruct and build life by purifying the mind and heart. It is to wear the values conveyed by the prophets for the good of humanity and to be the representative of those values."
"WE ARE SERVING OUR PILGRIMS WITH A TEAM OF 4,100 PEOPLE"
Noting that as the Presidency of Religious Affairs, they consider pilgrimage an important opportunity for guidance, Erbaş continued his words as follows:
"There are nearly 90 thousand pilgrim candidates from Turkey alone on this land. We have a special guidance team of 70 people from our Presidency's senior officials and universities. We have 468 female guidance officers. Again, we carry out our guidance activities with 416 convoy leaders and 1767 religious officials. We serve our pilgrims in Mecca and Medina with a team of 4,100 people. There is a health team of 390 people serving in the field of health within our team."
Reminding that pilgrimage is a grueling worship, Erbaş said, "As the Presidency of Religious Affairs, we do our utmost to ensure that our citizens perform the pilgrimage in the best possible way and return to their homes. This year, 88,430 of our citizens are coming to the holy lands for pilgrimage. As of tomorrow (today), all our pilgrim candidates will come to the holy land."
“WE HAVE 2 MILLION 300 THOUSANDS CANDIDATES WAITING”
Erbaş informed that 14 citizens who were in the holy lands for pilgrimage lost their lives since May 30 this year, and wished God's mercy on those who lost their lives and patience for their relatives.
Expressing that they have completed the preparations for Arafat, Erbaş said, "We build our Arafat tents with high quality, air conditioning and carpets. Although we are staying for a short time, we are building a hospital in Arafat. We provide transportation of our sick and elderly pilgrims who cannot walk, entirely by vehicle. In this way, I hope we will complete our pilgrimage together in a good way."
Erbaş noted that more than a thousand earthquake-affected pilgrim candidates were in the holy lands, and that those who could not come this year were transferred to the next year.
Answering the question about increasing the quota for pilgrimage to Turkey to 88 thousand 430, Erbaş gave the following information:
"Added due to population update in all countries. We also had a request. We have 2 million 300 thousand people waiting. We submitted our request, 'We would appreciate it if you could provide a little more boost in this update'. It has been slightly increased. Our population was 83 million before, now it has exceeded 85 million. There was such an update. Such a figure turned out."