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                                                               Alevis In Turkey

Who are Alevis? What is Alevism?  http://www.alevibektasi.org/xalevis1.htm

Prime Minister's Consultant For Alevi Affairs ResignsThe AKP deputy Reha Çamuroğlu, also the Prime Minister’s consultant for the matters
related to Turkey’s Alevi community resigns his post, claiming that the AKP administration will not implement the Alevi reform package.
Bia news center - Ankara
14-06-2008
Reha Çamuroğlu, a Justice and Development Party (AKP) deputy of Alevi origin and formerly Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s consultant in matters related
to Turkey’s Alevi community, resigned yesterday from his post as consultant within the party, claiming that the promises about the Alevis were not kept. However,
he did not resign from the party itself.

Esat Korkmaz, the chief editor of the periodical “Nefes” and the author of many books about Alevi perspective, had told Bianet in January 2008 that the AKP was
trying to discipline Alevis by bringing them to ‘the official world’ and that through Alevi-Bektaşi  bourgeoisie, it addresses those who are disorganized and further
away from the Alevi identity.

Similarly, Erdoğan Aydın Tatlav, an author and a researcher, told Bianet that “the Alevi perspective [of AKP] is not an effort for Turkey’s democratization and
secularization in the real sense, but an attempt to form a base for the party and manipulate the Alevi potential by pulling them into Islam.”       

In his statement Çamuroğlu said, “In the Alevi perspective that we have been watching closely, surely the words of our Deputy Prime Minister and some of the
deputies from our party against us and the perspective have made us uncomfortable. Moreover, we are worried that some of the bureaucrats who are in the field
of religious affairs and services have developed definite attitudes in a political discussion carried on rather hurriedly and sensationally. (…) However, the two
incidents that occurred last week have finally forced us to opt for decisive messages and attitudes. But, I cannot agree with those approaches wishing to present
me as the deputy who left the struggle in the middle of it.”

According to the newspaper “Sabah”, three incidents paved the way to the resignation:
The words of Mustafa Çağrıcı, the mufti of Istanbul, that “From the perspective of Islam, it does not seem possible to see Cem Houses, Alevi place of worship,
equivalent to mosques and to let them function as places of worship.”

The argument between the Minister of Interior, Beşir Atalay, and Elazığ Deputy, Fevzi İşbaşaran, during the AKP camp at Kızılcahamam about the Alevi girls in
YİBO dormitories at the district of Karakoçan in the province of Elazığ in eastern Turkey, who could not get any service.

The words expressed by Cemil Çiçek that “In the mosque, one performs the ‘namaz’ and in the Cem House, one performs the ‘semah’. Alevis are Sunni, Sunnis
are Alevis”.
Çamuroğlu’s reform package:
A Directorship for Alevis attached to the Prime Minister.
An Alevi institute.
Clarification of the status of the Cem Houses and the payment of their water and electricity bills by the state, as in the case of the mosques.
Giving Alevi ‘dede’s, the heads of Alevi religion, the social status they need and to put them on salary.
Ending the obligatory religion classes in schools, including in schoolbooks information about Alevis.

Reactions from the Alevi community
According to the newspaper “Milliyet”, İzettin Doğan, the president of Cem Foundation, said that he had warned Çamuroğlu that the Alevi perspective was a
deception, the Prime Minister would not develop this perspective, the Religious Affairs would not allow it.

Ali Balkız, the president of Alevi-Bektaşi Federation, said “He went, he saw, he returned. It was obvious that this would result. The AKP wants democracy for itself.
The freedom of belief is a mask covering the kind of Turkey they have in mind. If Reha could not do this, nobody can.”

Fevzi Gümüş, the president of Pir Sultan Abdal Cultural Association, said, “He must have finally seen AKP’s real intention. (NZ/TB)

Alevis in the Balance By Nibras Kazimi | October 17, 2006
http://www.nysun.com/opinion/alevis-in-the-balance/41692/

Who are the Alevis? Posted by Becer Gul 04 August 2008
http://www.newstatesman.com/blogs/the-faith-column/2008/08/alevis-ali-turkey-killed

Tunceli Turkey, Washington times may 23 2006
http://www.washtimes.com/news/2006/may/23/20060523-112232-5725r/
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Return of the Kurdish villagers whose homes have been burned by Turkish forces in early 1990s

Akdivar v. Turkey (Case no. 99/1995/605/693) was the very first in a series of judgments dealing with destruction and evacuation of villages handed down by the
European Court of Human Rights in cases brought with the assistance of KHRP together with the Human Rights Association of Turkey (IHD), Diyarbakir branch.
Since then, KHRP has received all too many similar appeals for help and have now submitted a large number of cases to the European Court on behalf of Kurds
from Southeast Turkey forced to flee their homes.
Despite the favourable judgements in many individual cases, however, the people who won their cases have not been allowed to return to their villages.
Displacement is subsequently one of the harshest aspects of Turkish State policy towards Kurds in Southeast Turkey over the past 20 years and remains one of
the most significant issues for the community today. It stems not only from the long term discrimination against the Kurds in Turkey, the policy of Turkification and
the armed conflict with the former Kurdistan Worker’s Party (PKK), but also from large scale infrastructure projects such as the Ilisu Dam that are often pursued
without regard to the interests and the wishes of the local population. The manner in which forced evacuations have been carried out, accompanied by extreme
brutality and total disregard for the dignity and physical and psychological integrity of the affected populations, and with flagrant disregard for the rule of law, has
resulted in multiple violations of human rights and involved Turkey breaching both domestic and international law.
Today, the question of return or resettlement of the displaced is still not resolved and remains one of the burning issues for the Kurds. As Turkey attempts to
negotiate membership of the EU, KHRP believes that Turkey’s record on the question of displacement is among the most crucial tests of its commitment to reform
its human rights record and of its intentions regarding relations with the Kurds of Turkey. This report aims to update previous KHRP reports on village destruction
and internal displacement in Southeast Turkey, to evaluate Turkey’s current programmes for return and resettlement of the displaced, and to set Turkish practice
against international standards in an effort to provide a comprehensive view of this brutal yet ongoing practice.

More about the issue
http://www.smh.com.au/news/letters/turkey-ignores-human-rights-conventions-in-trying-to-crush-kurds/2008/02/28/1203788531898.html

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C00E7D71431F937A15753C1A9659C8B63&n=Top/Reference/Times%20Topics/Organizations/E/European%
20Union

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2004/jan/22/turkey.eu?commentpage=1

http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/war/kurdistan-turkey-integration.htm
Alevis' prayer Semah
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Editing this page at the moment