IMM, once in the history of the institution, brought together the religious leaders of the Christian community living in Turkey at the invitation held for the Christmas Feast. Speaking at the invitation, IMM President Ekrem İmamoğluemphasized that in almost every society, there are people who are eager to gain benefits through religion and beliefs. Saying, "The abuse of religion constitutes an important obstacle to world peace, social security and the inner peace of individuals," İmamoğlu said, "I want the people of this city to carry the equality of the people, the culture of living together at the highest level, and to live where every individual feels noble and important because they are citizens." I declare that I am a mayor. I beg you that no citizen of this city, please, please, define himself as a minority. The 16 million people of this city are one, equal, original and noble. None of our people, any of our citizens can and should never be described as a minority,” he said.
Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality (IMM) President Ekrem İmamoğlumet with the religious leaders of the Christian community living in Turkey. Attending the "Christmas Feast" event, which was held for the first time in the history of the institution and held at the Haliç Congress Center, together with his wife Dilek Kaya İmamoğlu, İmamoğlu said that Istanbul is a unique and beautiful city where people from many different religions, nationalities and cultures have been neighbors throughout history. stressed. Emphasizing that the Armenian, Greek, Assyrian, Chaldean, Latin, Bulgarian, Georgian and other communities' Orthodox, Catholic and Protestant churches are the cultural heritages that give the city its color, İmamoğlu said, "Undoubtedly, sharing joy and happiness together on our special days and holidays, definitely and definitely helps each other. It brings it much closer,” he said.
“RELIGIOUS ABUSE, AGAINST ALL FAITH”
Emphasizing that the culture of unity, solidarity and solidarity has emerged as one of the most precious treasures in the difficult process, İmamoğlu reminded that there have been negative experiences due to moving away from this understanding from time to time. Emphasizing that in almost every society, there are people who are eager to gain benefits through religion and beliefs, İmamoğlu said, “The abuse of religion constitutes an important obstacle in front of world peace, social security and the inner peace of individuals. In fact, this is against all religions. We are a team that does not comply with the basic philosophy of any belief, considers only itself valuable, and is determined to serve this city with an equal, fair and inclusive management vision and a governance approach for the change of such understandings.”
“LOCAL GOVERNMENTS ARE OBLIGED TO PROVIDE EQUAL SERVICE TO EVERY CITIZEN”
In his speech, İmamoğlu gave a place to the work of the "Faith Desk", which they brought to life after he took office, and gave the example of citizens belonging to every religion in the country, in this way, a funeral ceremony was organized in line with their own beliefs. İmamoğlu said, “This situation, beyond the fact that our taxpaying citizens have the right to access this most basic service, is a situation that clearly hurts their consciences. We are very, very happy that we have eliminated this.” Pointing out that local governments are obliged to provide equal service to every citizen, İmamoğlu said, “Just as we share the feelings of our citizens during Ramadan and Sacrifice Feasts and oil lamps, we should be able to be at Christmas, Easter, Purim and Hanukkah. If we try to meet a demand for the maintenance, cleaning and disinfection of mosques, we show the same effort for requests from churches, synagogues and cemevis. This is never a blessing, it is the approach that should be. We are very pleased that these efforts are appreciated by all faith communities in Istanbul. We will continue to work that will not fail this trust," he said.
CELEBRATES THE CHRISTIAN WORLD
"I express that I am a mayor who wants to live the equality of the people of this city, to carry the culture of living together at the highest level, and to live where every individual feels noble and important because they are citizens," said İmamoğlu.
“I beg that no citizen of this city, please, please, define himself as a minority. The 16 million people of this city are one, equal, original and noble. None of our people, any of our citizens can and should never be described as a minority. On this special day of the entire Christian world, I sincerely congratulate you on the birthday of our very important great value, Jesus Christ, as a person who desires to be a good Muslim both in terms of the religion of Islam, which I belong to, and as a Muslim. I hope it will bring peace, brotherhood and tolerance to humanity. I wish that it will be a year in which all our citizens, who are going through very difficult times due to economic conditions, especially in the struggle of the whole society with the pandemic, will be in solidarity and overcome all difficulties.”
WIDE ATTENDANCE
In the Christmas invitation, respectively; Mahir Polat, Deputy Secretary General of IMM, Spiritual Leader of the Ancient Syriac Community in Istanbul and Ankara and Deputy Patriarch Metropolitan Filuksinos Yusuf Çetin, Spiritual Head of the Istanbul Latin Catholic Community-Vatican Representative Bishop SE Monsignor Massimiliano Palinuro, Turkish Armenian Patriarch Sahak Mashalyan and Istanbul Greek Patriarch Bartholomeos. made. Other names attending the invitation, which included Hatay Metropolitan Municipality Mayor Lütfü Savaş, are; The Spiritual Head of the Armenian Catholic Community of Turkey Archbishop Levon Zekiyan, the Deputy of the Syriac Catholic Patriarch of Turkey, Korebis Mgr. Orhan Çanlı, Spiritual Leader of the Chaldean Catholic Church, Archbishop Mgr. Acting Ramzi Garmou Mgr. François Yakan, the Spiritual Leader of the Armenian Protestant Community Pastor Kirkor Ağabaloğlu, the President of the Protestant Churches Association Pastor Ali Kalkandelen, the Istanbul Protestant Churches Representative Pastor Carlos Madrigal and the Community Foundations Representative S. Can Ustabaşı.
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