Cemevi

Police in the southeastern province of Gaziantep on Sept. 17 took extensive measures after detaining a suspected Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) militant who possessed pictures of a cemevi, a house of worship used by adherents of the Alevi sect, and was confirmed to be preparing a terror attack.  
 

Police in the southeastern province of Gaziantep on Sept. 17 alarmed and have taken extensive measures after receiving intelligence that a Cemevi, worship house used by adherents of Alevi sect, could be a target of a bomb attack.

From a pure humanitarian standpoint, it is impossible to challenge the demands of Turkey's Kurdish people to be visible in the Turkish state with their own identity. It is not possible either to tell people subscribing to the Alevi religious school that they should accept to be treated as if they were Sunni and give up demands for the recognition of their cemevi houses as places of worship.

In its very significant Alevi judgment, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) had this sentence in its 66th paragraph: "[...] The state's duty of neutrality and impartiality is incompatible with any power on the state's part to assess the legitimacy of religious beliefs or the ways in which those beliefs are expressed." 

According to Turkey's top cleric, the Turkish nation's verdict has precedence over a verdict by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), which recently found Turkey guilty of violating Alevis' right to religious freedom and discrimination by withholding public funds for Alevi worship houses "with no objective and reasonable justification." 

The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has found Turkey guilty of violating the right to religious freedom of Alevis and discriminating against them by withholding public funds for Alevi worship houses "with no objective and reasonable justification." As a result of the verdict, Turkey has been ordered to pay 3,000 euros in damages to each of the 203 applicants.

Locals from predominantly-Alevi populated villages in the southeastern province of Kahramanmara? continue to rally against plans to build a container city for around 27,000 Syrian refugees, citing fears that ethno-religious tensions may be stirred with the potential arrival of extremists. 

Villagers staged a protest over plans to build a new refugee camp in Kahramanmara?, a province in southern Turkey close to the Syrian border, daily Milliyet has reported. 

Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davuto?lu has visited a cemevi, an Alevi house of worship, in eastern Turkey, just months after he outlined a set of comprehensive action plans for the fulfillment of his party's pre-election promises to different segments of society. 

Turkey's Justice Ministry has founded a council to receive opinions from Alevi organizations upon the ruling party's pre-election promises and post-election 'action plan' on "traditional wisdom centers and cemevis," the state-run Anadolu Agency has reported.