Turkish Alevis go to European court for state support
Wednesday, September 1, 2010
ISTANBUL - Hürriyet Daily News
The Turkish state should provide the Alevi community with state funds and support for religious activities, the Cem Foundation, one of Turkey's prominent Alevi organizations, said Wednesday in an application to the European Court of Human Rights.
"According to our legal system, religious services are considered like public services. Consequently, this should be applied without any discrimination to all religious groups," said Cem Foundation head İzzettin Doğan during Wednesday's press conference, which was also attended by representatives from many Alevi groups.
Doğan is also the honorary president of the Federation of Alevi Foundations and said he was representing the federation in the case.
The foundation opened a case against the Prime Ministry in 2005, demanding the community's prayer houses, known as cemevis, be officially categorized as a place of worship like a mosque, church or synagogue. At the same time, the foundation also demanded that Alevi religious leaders be included on the state payroll like Sunni imams.
A court later ruled against the foundation's demands, with the Council of State, Turkey's top administrative court, approving the first court's decision, leading the group to ultimately apply to the European court with its requests.
It was important to apply before the Sept. 12 constitutional referendum, Doğan said, since a "yes" vote would grant Turkish citizens the right to apply individually to the country's Constitutional Court. Because all internal legal avenues must be exhausted before a complainant is permitted to apply to the European court, Doğan said the foundation hurried to table their application at Strasbourg so that it would not be bogged down by any possible further domestic legal requirements due to a "yes" vote.
"If the constitutional package passes, we will see many applications being made to the Constitutional Court, which would mean it would take a long time for the cases to be seen," said Doğan.
Doğan said he hoped Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan would solve the problems of Turkey's Alevis because his Justice and Development Party, or AKP, came to power with promises to change conditions for religious groups after declaring that there was "no freedom of belief in Turkey."
"We have waited five years, but nothing has happened," said Doğan.
Alevism, which is widely perceived as a liberal branch of Islam, exhibits distinct differences from the practices of Turkey's Sunni majority. Alevis worship in a cemevi, while Sunnis worship in a mosque.
Also, unlike most Muslim practices, Alevi rituals are conducted mostly in Turkish or occasionally Kurdish and feature music and dance, known as a "semah." Also, the two sects' rules on fasting and prayer differ widely, as Alevis do not typically fast during Ramadan.
Alevism is closely related to the Bektaşi Sufi lineage, venerating Hacı Bektaş Veli, a saint from the 13th century.
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