In a bid to strengthen Turkey's ties to Jerusalem, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan changed the name of his country's Directorate of Religious Affairs, which is a government organ, to the "Directorate of Jerusalem and Umrah Affairs." The unusual move was first reported by the conservative Turkish newspaper Yeni Safak on Saturday, which is considered a mouthpiece for the Erdogan government.
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The directorate is of considerable importance to Muslims in Turkey. Any Turk interested in observing the Hajj, the Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca and Medina in Saudi Arabia, must register a request through this authority. In 2015, as a reminder, Erdogan declared the addition of Jerusalem to the Umrah route (sometimes considered the "lesser pilgrimage" as it is not compulsory).
According to Yeni Safak, the Turks even prepared a tourist guidebook about the history of Jerusalem and its tourist sites. The guidebook suggests visiting the Al-Qasa Mosque and the Temple Mount, followed by Hebron and Jaffa – without any mention of Tel Aviv. In terms of other recommended sites in Jerusalem, the guidebook notes the Church of the Sepulchre of Saint Mary and King David's Tomb. It also recommends visiting Nebi Musa in Judea and Samaria (which Muslims believe to be the tomb of the Prophet Moses), and the clock tower in Jaffa, which was built by Sultan Abdul Hamid II.
The Turkish guidebook, meanwhile, failed to note any of these sites' affiliation with Israel.
"This is another case of Turkey emphasizing the observance of the Muslim pilgrimage, and this can be seen through two lenses," Dr. Hay Eytan Cohen Yanarocak, an expert on contemporary Turkish politics and foreign policy, told Israel Hayom. "The first is to encourage Turkish religious tourism to Jerusalem – a supposedly positive step. With that, the second aspect is certainly negative, because the Turks are working to drive a cultural wedge between the Turks visiting Israel and the country's Jewish heritage."
As for the Directorate of Religious Affairs' new name, Yanarocak said, "The significance is that they putting Jerusalem atop their public agenda. In Ankara, Turkish officials want the Jerusalem issue to remain prominent in the headlines on a permanent basis."
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