Pro-government religious sect builds road through village cemetery

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Elbeyi, Ortaköy and Göçeri... Three villages next to the village of Menzil, the center of the sect of the same name, in the southeastern Adıyaman province... The reactions of people of the three villages to the road that the Menzil sect built in their joint cemetery...

Hayri Demirbilek (We can't publish people's real names because of the sect's repression) from Ortaköy village is trying to make the voice of the people heard. The damaged cemetery was the registered land of the villagers, he says.

"Before the Menzil sect came here, our village had a road. It passed through Menzil village. After the sect came here, they closed the road.

"They then opened another road for us without making it pass through their lands. They imposed this road on us. They put a big iron gate on the other road to prevent us from passing. And now, they damaged our cemeteries on the pretext of expanding the road."

Not the government but the sect does the road expansion work, says Demirbilek. The villagers always have to confront the sect and the state is not with them, he says.

"There were similar situations before. We were made confronting each other many times. But we couldn't achieve a result wherever we filed a complaint at. The lawsuits we filed were dropped within a week.

"For example, they were going to build a road from our land to the pool, which they got built for themselves. But there was neither a plan nor permission. We wanted to see an official document. Of course, they didn't show anything.

"We filed a complaint. The commander of the gendarmerie station sided with the sect. He said that he came upon a verbal order by the sub governor. He threatened us.

"And now, we know that nobody got permission for this road. But everyone is scared, everyone is hesitant."

Kahta District Municipal Council member Ayhan Erdem confirms what Demirbilek says, noting that 50 cemeteries were damaged and they were threatened when they objected to unfairness.

In some graves, even the burial robes were brought to the surface and bones were collected, he says.

"The road of our village used to pass through Menzil village. The Menzil sect came one day and said, 'You are causing damage to us.' They said the roads were narrow and their cars were getting scratched.

"After all, we are villagers, we use tractors. We said, 'Okay.' We wanted them to show us how to solve this. They didn't. After a while, they said they would close our road. The villagers opposed that. We went to some certain authorities but nothing happened.

"They then closed the road. And they opened a road for us to walk. A few months later, they put an iron gate, something like a turnstile, on the new road. They would lock the gate whenever they wanted. So, the villagers' road was closed.

"We got the news last night at around 10. Our friends told us that the village's cemetery was being excavated for road expansion.

"I said the excavated place was not a road. I couldn't believe that. When I got up in the morning and went there, I really saw that graves were demolished. They dug our graves. Believe me, half of the graves were gone. How can someone damage graves?"

"They will fire villagers"

When he went to talk to the sect's leaders, he was threatened, says Erdem.

Because Adıyaman's municipality is not a "metropolitan municipality," it doesn't have any authority outside the Kahta district center, he notes. The Special Provincial Administration and the Sub Governorship are authorized in the village, he adds.

He says that the sect is "acting like a state" in the region: "The sect is powerful enough for anyone. After the reactions to the incident, they wanted a list of the villagers because they will fire people who work with the Menzil sect. If not today, they'll do it tomorrow. Nobody hears us when we speak out. We don't have the strength to endure this anymore. The destruction of our cemeteries deeply hurt us." (HA/VK)