Alevi houses of worship to be granted legal status

Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu announced that the places of worship for the country's Alevi minority – referred to as a cemevi - will be granted legal status.

The exact size of the Alevi population in Turkey is not known, but they constitute the second-largest religious community in the country after Sunni Muslims. Alevis constitute the second-largest religious community in Turkey, after Sunni Muslims. Local administrations of several Turkish provinces have declared cemevis as official places of worship.

At the beginning of 2015, the European Court of Human Rights urged for the recognition of cemevis as places of worship with status equal to that of mosques and churches in December. In August 2006, an Alevi foundation argued that cemevis should be recognized officially and, similar to other places of worship, their bills should be paid for through a fund administered by the Presidency of Religious Affairs (DİB).

Courts dismissed the foundation's application, basing their decision on the DİB's opinion that cemevis are not places of worship, rather places of assembly in which spiritual ceremonies are held.

For years, public recognition of the Alevi identity, institutions and the legal status of Cemevis have been common requests made by a variety of groups in the Alevi community. Though the cemevis are the houses of religious rituals for the Alevi minority of Turkey, so far they have no legal status equivalent to that of mosques or churches. According to the program, arrangements to give them legal status will be completed and, as with mosques, water and power expenses will be covered by the DİB. Moreover, the government is also planning to provide public aid to the Dedes.

The previous Justice and Development Party (AK Party) government also took steps to resolve the concerns of the Alevi community. The Alevi initiative in Turkey was launched during Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's tenure as prime minister in 2009, and seven discussion workshops were held with the participation of Alevi leaders and representatives from different segments of society over a course of six months. Moreover, on Nov. 23, 2011, Erdoğan apologized on behalf of the state for the Dersim tragedy in 1937.

The incident refers to the massacre of Alevi Zaza people in Dersim in 1937 and 1938 after an Alevi uprising during the Republican People's Party's (CHP) single-party era. According to gendarmerie reports, 13,806 people were killed and thousands more were internally displaced due to the military campaign against the uprising after the 1934 Resettlement Law, which aimed to assimilate ethnic minorities. Erdoğan described the incident as one of the most painful and bloody tragedies in Turkey's recent history.