PodcastTurkey's top religious authority uses Friday sermon to ask for donations despite massive budget
Turkey's top religious body used the Friday sermon of Oct. 16 to encourage donations despite having one of the largest budgets in Ankara. The Diyanet's annual budget for 2021 is at 12.9 billion liras, daily BirGün reported on Oct. 19.
Duvar English
Turkey's Directorate General of Religious Affairs (Diyanet) has asked congregations across the country for donations despite having one of the largest budgets in Ankara, daily BirGün reported on Oct. 19.
Chaired by AKP founder, Islamic Research Center's budget rises six-fold in 16 yearsAlthough the directorate launches donation campaigns for mosque constructions every year, imams of the Diyanet asked worshippers for "goodwill" during the Friday sermon of Oct. 16, in spite of having an annual budget of 12.9 billion liras for 2021.
In 2019, the Diyanet had a budget of six million liras for maintenance and repairs of real estate, which went up to 9.3 million liras with additions during the year and spent 3.8 million liras of it.
The largest items of spending in construction between 2018 and 2021 were 15.3 million liras on the construction of an education center in eastern Elazığ and another 21.4 million liras for a center in western Denizli.
The Diyanet also reportedly funded 379 requests from mosques and Quran courses in 2019, for the cost of a total 29.3 million liras.