Turkish president defends Saudi Arabia's organization of Hajj

Turkish President Recep Erdogan has spoken out to defend Saudi Arabia on Friday in the wake of the Hajj stampede tragedy that martyred 717 pilgrims.

“It is not right to have the approach of putting the blame on Saudi Arabia”, Erdogan told reporters in Istanbul. “On the contrary, during the Hajj and Umrah I participated in, I came to observe closely the level of sensibility in the organization work conducted there. Therefore, I cannot say ‘the organization is wrong’ ”.

“I believe that the Saudi Arabian government will take some decisions just as they did to act decisively after the construction incident”.

Statistics show that at least 1000 pilgrims were injured in Thursday’s stampede in Mina, 5 kilometers east of the holy city of Makkah.



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