BAGIS FAMILY HOSTS AN IFTAR MEAL AT DARULACEZE

Minister for EU Affairs and Chief Negotiator Egemen Bagis and his spouse Beyhan Bagis came together with the needy of Darulaceze for the eighth time in Istanbul at their traditional iftar dinner.

As well as the people of Darulaceza, Volkan Bozkir, the Chairperson of the TGNA Committee on Foreign Affairs,  Rahmi Yaran,  the Mufti of Istanbul, Yusuf Sag, the Catholic Deputy Patriarch of Turkish Assyrian, Zeki Basatemir,  the President of Syriac Catholic Church Foundation, Tatul Anusyan, the Armenian Patriarchate Ecumenical Assembly Speaker Priest, Bensiyon Pinto, the Honorary President of Turkish Jewish Community and well-known performers Orhan Gencebay, Nuri Sesigüzel and Zerrin Özer also joined the iftar meal.

Visiting the kindergarten first and talking to kids, Egemen Bagis and Beyhan Bagis shook hands with the elderly people and then had a talk with them at the iftar table in the garden of Darulaceze.

In his speech after the iftar meal, Bagis stated that the real meaning of Ramadan was sharing, solidarity, empathizing and cooperation, and therefore  this organization, the eighth of which was held this year, became a ‘family tradition’ for them.

Telling the story of how Darulaceze was established, Bagis said that Sultan Abdulhamid met the needs of this institution from his own savings and now citizens are of much more help than the budget provided by the government.

Bagis reminded that in addition to the mosques, synagogues and churches were also built in the garden so that people in Istanbul from different religious beliefs could make use of them, and he added:

“We are fulfilling a very important duty by reminding both people in need that they have a place to go and people who wish to do good that they have an establishment for it. Mr President has a close relationship with the elderly people living here. When he was the mayor of metropolitan municipality, he conducted several activities for here. He comes to visit here on every occasion. When he is not able to visit, he sends his compliments. Since 1895, people in need have come here and they have been welcomed by our sensitive government and nation. 30 thousand out of this 70 thousand are our children. There are a lot of families without children. There are also several children to be adopted. They normally stay here for 2-3 months. Thank god we are a benevolent nation.”

Stating that Turkey is the 4th country on the amount of foreign-aid list, Bagis said that Turkey became the hope for people in Somalia, Rakhine, Pakistan, Haiti, Gaza, Georgia and many other countries.