05.04.2026 11:02
177 people who were victimized by the tour company they made an agreement with in the holy lands they went to for worship returned to their homeland following the instructions given by President Erdoğan.
Efforts to bring back citizens who were to be expelled from the hotels they were staying in due to the tour company they had contracted not making payments while performing the Umrah pilgrimage, and who had not purchased plane tickets to return to Turkey, have yielded positive results.
As a result of the efforts of AK Party Sakarya Deputy Ali İnci, 177 people arrived in Istanbul late at night on a Turkish Airlines flight.
Inci, who welcomed the citizens returning from Umrah with carnations at the airport, told reporters that hundreds of people were victimized and that they had made great efforts to resolve the situation.
ERDOĞAN GAVE INSTRUCTIONS
Inci stated that with the support of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, the victimized citizens were brought back to Turkey, and continued: "Nearly 600 of our citizens were victimized in the holy lands they went to for Umrah. They experienced hardship with the news that the tour company they had contracted went bankrupt. It was not possible for our President to leave our citizens outside of Turkey, and with his support, we brought our pilgrims back home. We also thank our Minister of Transport and Infrastructure and the General Manager of Turkish Airlines. The first group arrived today. We will bring all the pilgrims. They are boarding buses from here. They will set off towards Sakarya. However, necessary steps will be taken to prevent similar situations from occurring in the name of other companies in the future."
"OUR PRESIDENT INTERVENED"
Mehmet Zeyneloğlu, one of those returning from Umrah, stated that despite the difficulties experienced, they fulfilled their religious duties. Zeyneloğlu, who noted that the first 10 days went well, said, "We were told that the company we went with went bankrupt and that we had to leave the hotel. Of course, we panicked there. Then, in the discussions we had, we stayed by paying extra money out of our own pockets. After that, we couldn't return home. Thank God our President and our deputy intervened, our tickets were purchased, and we came. Some citizens left stranded because the companies went bankrupt could not go to Medina. Some were left on the street, and after a while, they were re-accommodated in hotels," he said.