From the Arab peoples: Thank you, Turkey! "What is the reward of good but good?"

In Turkey there are some 2,700 thousand Syrians who have been forced to flee and take refuge from the war environment in Syria, from the tyranny of the oppressive Assad, Hezbollah and DAEŞ. Turkey has been bearing the burden of the drama that has unfolded in Syria over the last five years without complaining or crying in any way, and moreover almost entirely with its own means.

We are all watching with astonishment what kind of social and political crisis a small number of refugees caused when they entered European territory.

For Europe, so fond of giving the world lessons in human rights, humanism and law with its arrogance and its placing itself at the center, the Syria test was more than enough to measure its loyalty to its own values.

Europe took the measure of its values on account of Syria. In the face of the hundreds of people dying every day in Syria and the drama being lived by the millions who have been displaced from their homes so far, its only thought is its own comfort.

Europe is focused on how it can keep the waves of migration that could disturb this comfort away from its own shores.

Turkey, however, with the open-door policy it has followed, has not closed its door to anyone who came up to its border to save their own life. It let them in, hosted them in the best conditions, and continues to host them. So much so that as the number of migrants, initially projected at a maximum of around a hundred thousand, reached the millions, it set about preparing its conditions for new waves of migration..

Now some 2 million 700 thousand Syrians live with the people of Turkey, almost fused with them, without producing a noteworthy problem in proportion to their numbers.

There are also tens of thousands of people in Turkey who have come fleeing, again, the tyranny of Shiite militias or DAEŞ in Iraq.

Thousands of people who fled from Egypt, where after the military coup 3-4 thousand people were killed by random fire in the squares, more than fifty thousand people were arbitrarily arrested and subjected to every kind of torture in prisons, and the opposition press was completely silenced, are also in Turkey.

Turkey hosts thousands of Yemenis who fled the insecure environment created by the Houthi occupation in Yemen..

It also hosts thousands of Libyans who fled the unstable and insecure environment created by the international conspiracy that collapsed upon Libya.

In addition to these, it provides scholarship opportunities to the youth of many countries, from Islamic countries to African peoples and Central Asian countries, enabling them to build their futures with greater hope, and it also contributes to the development of those countries through institutions such as TİKA.

Precisely for this reason, a Thank You Turkey Festival is being organized on the initiative of the Arab peoples in particular who had to flee the war environment in their countries and found a refuge for themselves in Turkey.

Although Turkey is not the richest country in the world, when it comes to humanitarian aid it behaves like the richest country in the world.

That is why for several years it has not let anyone take away its first place in the world in humanitarian aid. For this reason, the "Thank You Turkey" organizing committee formed in Istanbul has seen fit "to organize a festival in the name of thanks to the President, government and people of Turkey, on the part of the free world and of Muslim and Arab peoples, for its support of humanitarian issues and for its admirable attitude toward the problems of the ummah in these difficult conditions"..

A part of this festival consists of events organized by foreign students studying at different universities in Turkey, while the main, larger part began yesterday at 18:00 in Istanbul Sinan Erdem. At the Thank You Turkey festival, which will continue today and tomorrow with various events, there will be, together with the great Islamic scholar Yusuf El-Kardavi, Khaled Meshaal and the Deputy Prime Minister of Yemen Abdullah al-Akoua, senior participants from at least 15 countries. The last day of the festival has been made to coincide specifically with 24 April. On a day when a part of the world accuses Turkey of genocide against the Armenians for events that happened a hundred years ago, the humane approach that Turkey, on the contrary, has provided to those fleeing genocides is thereby brought to the fore. The hypocrisy in the insensitivity displayed toward the genocides being committed today by those who accuse Turkey over what happened a century ago could not be revealed more beautifully.

The organizing committee says in its invitation declaration: "All religions and civilizations recommend giving a good response to kindnesses and favors done. We too, proceeding from the noble verse 'Is the reward for goodness anything but goodness?' and from the hadith 'One who does not thank people has not thanked God,' wished to thank the Turkish people, its leader and its government."

In the conversations we had with people from the organizing committee during the preparation stages of this festival, they also added the following:

Turkey deserves a great thanks not only for the humane policy it has displayed toward refugees. It also deserves a much greater thanks for the policy it displays toward its own citizens, which places human dignity at the center. Because with this policy it reminds the Islamic world of its forgotten values and shows the whole world that Muslims too can build a unity with their own peoples.

Thank you Turkey, especially for following a policy that teaches that in international relations not only interests but principles still matter.

Thank you, people of Turkey, thank you, leader and government of Turkey, because these principles are of course a hope for the oppressed in today's world and because they keep Muslims' heads held high.