Alevi Workshop

Ali Balkız, the president of the Alevi Bektashi Federation (ABF), has told bianet that Alevi organisations have for the first time agreed on five issues.

At the Alevi workshop organised by the government, which took place in Ankara on 3 and 4 June, the following demands were agreed on, so Balkız:

1. The cem houses, places of worship for the Alevi, must have legal status, just like mosques, churches and synagogues in Turkey.

2. Compulsory religious education classes must be abolished.

3. The policy of building mosques in Alevi villages must be abandoned.

4. The Haci Bektaş lodge and other Alevi locations which were taken from Alevis with the Law on Lodges need to be returned.

5. The Madimak Hotel in Sivas, where many Alevi intellectuals were killed in an arson attack in 1993, must be turned into a museum.

Disagreements on other issues

The ABF further demands the abolition of the Directorate of Religious Affairs, but there were different view points on that issue. There was also disagreement on whether the Alevi "dede", the religious elders, should receive wages and employee rights, or whether this would undermine laicism.

The workshop was attended by State Minister Faruk Çelik. In his speech, he emphasised laicism and equality and promised solutions to the problems that Alevis faced.

Balkız said that while the speech was promising, they would be looking at what followed.

More meetings with Alevi associations and rights organisations are to follow. By autumn, a report on the problems facing Alevis is to be presented to the government. (TK/AG)