BAGIS: SOCİAL AIDES PEAKED DURING OUR ADMINISTRATION

Bagıs during his speech

Egemen Bagis attended a conference titled "Turkey and Social Funds for the Donators and Non Governmental Organizations" organized by TUSEV (Third Sector Foundation of Turkey) and supported by successful US based businessmen Haldun Tashman, on October, 6. "Social assistance has had a significant increase since our government came to office. However there is still need for arrangements in its legal infra structure" he said in the opening speech he gave.

Pointing out at the beginning of his speech that he was quite surprised to be invited to make the opening of a conference about social assistance and solidarity Bagis continued "Then I realized that social aids had shown a significant increase since our government came to office. Yet there are still some drawbacks both in the legal infra structure and in how the public approaches the issue."

Bagis stated that our society is highly motivated and active in social assistance however the issue of trust is also an important factor in such matters. Following the August 17 earthquake, Bagis said the public was misled by the press and an important organization like Red Crescent had received a severe reputational damage. However, despite all these negative campaigns Red Crescent is still the biggest social aid organization in Turkey. The AK Party MP said because of the mistrust in the Red Crescent, the Turkish people in foreign countries and particularly in the USA donated to Red Cross instead, "However the Americans sent their donations through Red Crescent, because Red Crescent was not taking 1% commission from the donations. The Americans didn't want to loose money so they made their donations directly to Red Crescent".

Bagis said he believes that the representatives of foreign foundations and associations who participated in the conference will contribute greatly to the matters of social assistance in Turkey and added that in the last four years there have been significant improvements in Turkey particularly in the fields of education and social charity.

Within the "100% contribution to education" project all donations are hold exempt from taxes said Bagis. "With projects such as free coal and free textbook distribution at the schools our government supports social aids and will continue such initiations. Social assistance is the proof of a society's cultural awareness. This awareness is already in incline in our society and with the arrangements in the legal infrastructure such issues will become more healthily sustainable" he added.

Bagis further noted that thousands were employed due to the micro credits projects lead by AK Party Member of the Parliament representing Diyarbakir Professor Aziz Akgul.