Cem Foundation

Hundreds of people marched on July 2 to commemorate the victims of an arson attack in which 33 intellectuals and two hotel personnel lost their lives in the Central Anatolian province of Sivas on the 30th anniversary of the massacre.

The Cem Foundation, a foundation that represents a portion of Turkey's Alevi sect, has asked the Turkish Education Ministry for the concepts of "Salafism" and "jihad" to be removed from the renewed education curriculum, saying these concepts could make "radical religious groups" feel encouraged.

A Turkish Alevi foundation has released a list of suggestions that was submitted to the Education Ministry on Jan. 30 to demand that officials include lessons on their faith in religious classes amid changes to the country's curriculum.

The government is obliged to implement decisions taken by Turkey?s Supreme Court and the ECHR on the rights of the Alevis, or else the justice system will be blocked by thousands of new legal cases and ?unfortunate?

An inmate of the Alevi faith, a secular version of Islam, was permitted to meet with an Alevi religious leader, known as an Alevi Dede, in prison thanks to a ruling which allowed imams to preach in prisons.

The meeting between inmate Miktat Algül, 47, and an Alevi Dede from the Cem Foundation's Ankara branch occurred on May 18 and marked a first in Turkey's history. 

Prime Minister Ahmet Davuto?lu met with representatives of the Alevi communities in Istanbul late March 21, after which many of the representatives stated they did not expect concrete solutions to their problems before the upcoming elections in June.