content tagged with discrimination against Alevis

Alevi Elder Muharrem Ercan questioned how their community would be able to construct licensed Alevi cem houses while the Turkish state still refuses to grant them recognition as official houses of worship, in response to a recent statement by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan who called the Karacaahmet Cem House a “freak.”

Officials arrested the traditional Ramadan drummer as part of their investigation into the attack against an Alevi-Kurdish family in the eastern province of Malatya. Opposition deputies who arrived in the province also castigated the authorities for their inadequate response to the incident.

Mobs attacked a Kurdish Alevi family and torched their barn in the eastern province of Malatya over the weekend after family members argued with a traditional street drummer who wakes up the faithful for their pre-dawn ritual meal in the month of Ramadan. The incident has drawn condemnations and protests from various quarters.

Turkey’s Alevite community is getting ready to shout their demands in a mass gathering. They want to inform the public of the discrimination the Alevis have been experiencing and reveal the insincerity of the ruling party towards the Alevi demands.