In the end of last week, Bagcilar Olympic Sports Complex was home to a fundraising event for Palestine, co-organized by numerous NGOs including IKRA Association, ILKAD Association, Teneffus Associaton For Culture And Education, Sosyal Doku Association and Kuyulu Mosque Association For Solidarity.
Lokman Cagrici, Mayor of Bagcilar Municipality, Mevlut Uysal, Mayor of Basaksehir Municipality, Hasim Baltaci, Mayor of Arnavutkoy Municipality, Ali Bozkurt, Head of Bagcilar Office of Felicity Party, Abdurrahman Dilipak, a writer and a journalist, Prof. Dr. Ahmet Agirakca, representatives of several NGOs and around 3000 people from the general public attended the event.
The event program started with recitations from the Holy Quran. Emin Atalay, Attorney, President of IKRA gave an opening speech on behalf of the organizing committee. He expressed his thanks to everyone who supported the event. He continued “We are ready to do everything we can in order to help the Palestinian cause.”
Bulent Yildirim, President of IHH, stated that the Palestinian cause have become one of the most important matters in the world and no kind of power has the ability to hinder that. Noting that Muslims are being killed in wars all over the world, Yildirim said that Muslims are able to break off the oppression, only if they unite as one.
One of the greatest protests in history
Yildirim also said that they will be carrying out one of the greatest protests in history for the Palestinian cause, added “The flotilla campaign delivering humanitarian aid to Palestine will become one of the biggest humanitarian aid campaigns up to this day. We take Palestine as a whole. We do not discriminate between any institution, structure or organization. For us, Palestine is a united entity. I would like to announce two things regarding the flotilla campaign. The first one is that, as IHH, we have now purchased our 3rd ship. Including this new 4400-ton cargo ship, there is now 9 ships in total sailing off to Gaza. We will not give in to Israel’s threats. We will break the embargo. The second good news is that one of the ships joining the flotilla to Gaza is embarking on her journey from Ireland tonight at 1 a.m.. Our ships are sailing off on the 21st of May from Istanbul. We expect thousands of people to send the ships off that day.” Yildirim calling out to the participants of the event, said “One day, we will be praying in Al-Aqsa Mosque altogether freely.”
“Even if you have 1 Turkish Lira left, send it off to Palestine”
Prof. Dr. Ahmet Agirakca invited everyone to support “Palestine Our Route, Humanitarian Aid Our Load” campaign. He said “Even if you have 1 Turkish Lira left in your pocket, send it off to Palestine. You should chip in by all manner of means.
Abdurrahman Dilipak, a writer-journalist, noted that a global intifada will be started off against Israel. Calling out to the U.S. and Israel, Dilipak said “God is greater than both Israel and the U.S.”
Grup Genc and Omer Karaoglu, gave a little concert contributing to the event with their religious melodies.
