Members of Istanbul’s Alevi community welcomed a landmark visit from Turkey’s top Sunni cleric on Friday as the head of the Religious Affairs Directorate intimated that the Alevi cemevi could soon receive official recognition from the state.
Meeting with Alevi leaders and congregants at the Erikli Baba Cultural Association and Cemevi in Zeytinburnu’s Kazlıçeşme neighborhood on Friday, Mehmet Görmez became the first head of the directorate to visit a cemevi in an official capacity in republican history. Participants in the 90-minutes talks reported afterwards that cemevis, the Alevi place of worship, would soon be given official recognition.
“Up until today, we haven’t been able to find a relevant party to explain our problems; the official status of cemevis has not been recognized,” association head Metin Tarhan told the Hürriyet Daily News on Friday. “After all these phases, the step that the directorate has taken is an extremely positive step.”
Alevis have long demanded that cemevis be recognized as houses of worship, but the requests have been consistently denied by the directorate, which says the only place of worship for Muslims is a mosque. Alevis, who form the second largest religious grouping in the country after Sunnis, are generally viewed as a liberal branch of Islam.
“We cannot educate our clergy. We cannot teach Alevism to our youth,” said Tarhan. “We have suggested to the Education Ministry that our children not participate in compulsory religious classes but instead study the history of religion, but this proposal was rejected.”
Stressing that Alevis were also members of Turkish society, Tarhan said, “We also demand a school where we can teach our children our own culture and educate our clergy.”
Alevi leaders at the meeting presented the complete works of Hacı Bektaş Veli, a 13th-century Turkish Sufi philosopher revered by Alevis, to Görmez.
Derogatory words against Alevism
Until today, Alevism has been viewed as a “bad thing” in Turkey and derogatory words have occasionally been used to describe the group, Tarhan said. “We have gone through such painful phases that our people have received deep wounds.”
Pointing to the sad events of the past, Tarhan mentioned the 1938 Dersim Operation and the 1993 Sivas Massacre, two incidents in which many Alevis were killed. “These are the saddest pages of the Turkish Republic’s recent past. Our people have succumbed to this harsh phase and have assimilated,” he said.
