President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is expected to make a positive announcement about the Alevi community in Türkiye on Friday, reports said.
The president is expected to visit the Şahkulu Cemevi – an Alevi house of worship – in Istanbul and inaugurate the newly built complex in the cemevi, and also inaugurate other cemevis in a mass ceremony, Anadolu Agency (AA) reported.
He is expected to announce new decisions made regarding the solution to Alevi citizens’ problems.
In a parliamentary group meeting of his ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) on Tuesday, the president had said he would announce new steps to meet the expectations of Alevis, despite attempts to provoke them against the country.
The government has taken action to address the needs of the community. Under the coordination of the Interior and Culture and Tourism Ministries, all 1,585 cemevis in the country were visited by officials.
As a result of the visits, officials came across 8,740 demands and have already responded to 5,600 of them.
Both ministries have also sped up work to address other demands of Alevi citizens.
In July, Turkish officials condemned attacks targeting cemevis, including three in Ankara and one in Istanbul’s Kartal district.
Alevis, who make up the second-largest religious community in the country with approximately 20 million followers, have a list of concerns about various issues, including the public recognition of their identity, the legal status of cemevis and funding, as well as the prerogative for Alevi students to be excluded from compulsory religion classes in elementary and high schools.
The cemevis are currently regarded as foundations under Turkey’s Interior and Culture and Tourism Ministries, rather than recognized as houses of worship, which would legally entitle them to receive state funding like mosques, churches and synagogues of recognized religious minorities in the country. Some 80% to 90% of all cemevis in the country were built during the successive AK Party governments since 2002.
The Alevi faith is explained as a combination of Shiite Islam, the Bektashi Sufi order and Anatolian folk culture, rather than a separate religion.
In 2009, the first Alevi initiative was launched during the term of then-Prime Minister Erdoğan. Alevi leaders and representatives attended several workshops with the government over a six-month period. Later in 2011, Erdoğan issued an unprecedented apology on behalf of the Turkish state for the Dersim tragedy, which took place in 1937, when 13,806 people were killed following a military campaign after the predominantly Alevi Zaza Kurdish tribes opposed the 1934 Resettlement Law passed by the CHP during the single-party regime.
The discussion process was interrupted during the Gezi Park riots in 2013, but an "Alevi opening" initiative was launched in 2014, and a council was formed to discuss issues in 2016, but there have not been any concrete developments since.