ALEVI GROUP PUSHES FOR EQUAL FUNDING AND RELIGIOUS

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 ISTANBUL 001297

SIPDIS

DEPT FOR EUR/SE

E.O. 12958: DECL: 07/16/2015
TAGS: PHUM PREL TU
SUBJECT: ALEVI GROUP PUSHES FOR EQUAL FUNDING AND RELIGIOUS
EDUCATION

REF: ANKARA 1883

Classified By: CG DAVID ARNETT FOR REASONS 1.4 (B) AND (D)


1. (SBU) Summary: The Cem Foundation, an Istanbul-based
Alevi organization, presented petitions to the Prime Ministry
and the Ministry of Education on June 22 demanding
proportional public funding for religious institutions, and
changes to the religious education curriculum in Turkish
public schools. Cem Foundation Chairman Izzettin Dogan tells
us his organization plans to take the case to the European
Court of Human Rights if Turkey's judicial system does not
produce results. Claiming the federation to which his
left-oriented organization belongs represents "95 percent" of
Turkey's Alevis, Dogan implied his group speaks for "the
Alevi community" in Turkey, but that claim is not credible
given Turkish Alevis' heterogeneity, and, indeed, the
existence of several different "Alevi communities" in Turkey.
End summary.

Prelude to a Suit
--------------


2. (U) The Cem Foundation, an Istanbul-based Alevi
organization, petitioned the Prime Ministry and the Ministry
of Education on June 22 for funding and reforms to religious
education. The government has 60 days to respond, after
which an organization may then proceed to court. The
petition to the Prime Ministry claims the Directorate of
Religious Affairs is a representative of only Sunni Islam,
and demands the government provide religious service to
Alevis as a public service, grant Alevi "cemevi" centers
status as "places of worship," employ sufficient and
competent personnel as public officials to provide religious
services to Alevis, and allocate funds for services for
Alevis. The petition to the Education Ministry concludes
with these demands: more inclusive preparation of curriculum
for religious classes, including participation of Alevi
leaders; amendment of textbook content to include information
about Alevi faith and culture; teacher training on any
changes made; and the creation of monitoring mechanisms to
follow implementation of relevant changes.

How Many Alevis Are There, Anyway? And Who Represents them?
-------------- --------------


3. (SBU) In a July 6 meeting with poloff, Dogan, accompanied
by the Foundation's General Manager and two members,
elaborated upon the petitions, claiming that the government
spends state funds on some 100,000 mosques around the
country, many of which employ as many five officials, while
there are no state resources devoted to the opening of
"cemevis." The Cem Foundation asserts that there are as many
as 25 million Alevis in Turkey, or approximately 35 percent
of the population, and believes that state expenditures on
religious institutions should reflect that by dividing funds
proportionally among religious groups. (Note: Official
State figures, normally kept confidential and based on
extensive family-tree archives, show that the number of
Alevis in Turkey is closer to 7 million, approximately ten
percent of the population. End note.)


4. (U) On a recent Turk Haber television program, Dogan
said, he debated Parliament's Education Commission Chair, AK
Party member and former Director of Religious Affairs Tayyar
Altikulac, about funding issues. Dogan told us that when he
asserted there were 25 million Alevis and that the state
budget should reflect that, Altikulac responded that there
were at most 8 million Alevis. To that Dogan retorted that
the community would be happy to take only a seventh of the
budget then, as a start.


5. (SBU) Dogan, told poloff the Cem Foundation is an
affiliate of the Federation of Alevi Foundations, which Dogan
asserts brings together "14 or 15 of the 19 or 20" Alevi
foundations and represents 95 percent of the Alevis in
Turkey. (Note: Dogan's brother heads the Malatya Cem
Foundation; he told us in March 2005 (reftel) that this new
federation of foundations was being formed, with 12 having
united at that time. End note.) Dogan's claim that the
newly formed Federation represents "95 percent" of Alevis in
Turkey, however, is not credible when one considers the
heterogeneity of Alevis in Turkey, and indeed the existence
of several distinct "Alevi communities."


6. (SBU) A recent report in Milliyet newspaper illustrated
some of the complexities of Alevi identity, at least among
urban Alevis, by citing a survey that found 34.5 percent of
city-dwelling Alevis describe their religious identity as
Alevi only, 32 percent as both Muslim and Alevi, 12.1 percent
as Muslim only, 3.4 percent as Kizilbas, 2.9 percent as
Bektasi (the latter two orders within the Alevi tradition),
14.6 percent as atheist, and 5 percent as humanist. Ethnic
Kurdish Alevis, the report crosstabulated, were more prone to
identify as Alevi only or atheist, while Turkish Alevis more
often said they were Muslim or both Muslim and Alevi.
Results in rural Anatolia would be different, but would also
demonstrate diverse views about beliefs and identities.
Moreover, there are various political leanings among Alevis,
from extreme leftwing to apolitical to at least one group
that some assert is building ties with (Sunni) "political
Islam." It would be difficult for any one group to credibly
claim to speak for "the Alevi community."

Hasn't anyone heard of Whirling Dervishes?
--------------


7. (SBU) Turning to the matter of mandatory religious
instruction, Dogan claimed there is no mention in the current
curriculum of the association with Alevism of important
figures and traditions in Turkish history including folk poet
Yunus Emre, humanist Haci Bektas, and the Mevlana sect. The
lack of education about Alevi traditions and historical
figures contributes to a lack of pride and interest among
youth in being Alevi, he said, estimating some 4-5 percent of
young Alevis are "atheist." Dogan said that government
officials have claimed there will be 20 new books in the
coming year in which Alevism does receive mention, and that
the curriculum will reflect new thinking. But Dogan
questioned where the content of this curriculum is coming
from, adding that no one had asked him or his foundation for
input.

The Saz - Instrument or Symbol? Or Joke?
--------------


8. (C) Press reports about the Cem Foundation's petition
included mention of a demand that the "saz" (a type of
long-necked lute) be accepted as a musical instrument in
schools. (Note: The saz is believed to have "descended"
from the Kopuz stringed instruments used by Turkish tribes
over a thousand years ago. From the 1500's onwards, Alevi
dervishes traveling the countryside of Anatolia used the saz
in ceremonies and songs, the lyrics of which focused, among
other things, on love, mysticism, and rebellion, often
reflecting Alevi resistance to rising Ottoman Sunni power and
struggle against Sunni repression. Thus, many see the saz as
a symbol of that resistance. End note.) Dogan claimed the
press overplayed the petition's mention of the saz. The
purpose of including it in the petition, he said, was to
advocate that the saz be seen as just another musical
instrument, rather than a threatening symbol, if a student
wanted to use it in musical instruction. Separately,
Galatasaray University law professor Emre Oktan, an expert on
religious minorities who studied under Dogan in years past,
told poloff that the mention of the saz alongside the other
demands related to education might trivialize the petition
and its contents in the eyes of public opinion.


9. (SBU) Dogan also pointed to the use of state media for
religious programming as an area where the Alevi community
would like equal access. Currently there are seven state TV
channels and RTUK should divideaccess to those channels
equally among religious groups for programming, he said.
Finally, he touched briefly upon the need for equity in terms
of institutions for training religious leaders.


10. (SBU) Comment: It is not clear how many of the
estimated seven million Alevis in Turkey support Dogan's
tactics and plans, but the attention paid to Alevis in last
year's EU Progress Report may have given the Cem Foundation
and other Alevi groups more energy and incentive to go public
in demanding increased rights (despite their distaste at
being called a "non-Sunni Muslim minority" in that report.)
Dogan does not expect a response to the petitions, nor
satisfactory solutions from the Turkish judiciary, and
appears prepared to take the case to the ECHR. An eventual
Cem Foundation case in the ECHR would join an already pending
one, filed in January 2004, by an Alevi parent who claims
obligatory religious education violates the freedom of
religion. Just as the ethnic Kurdish community has turned to
the ECHR in seeking rights and compensations they have not
been able to achieve inside Turkey, the Alevi community may
begin to follow suit.


11. (C) Comment, cont'd: Beyond the belief of radical
Sunnis that Alevis are not even Muslim, there are
administrative issues at stake. The question of financing
places of worship highlights the fear in Turkey's religious
bureaucracy that if it recognizes cemevis today, it will have
to go further and recognize other venues tomorrow. The
proportional approach to these questions does not seem to
provide a way forward, in the absence of reliable statistics
about who is what, combined with the absence of consensus
about what constitutes a religion worthy of funding. The
GOT, however, as it continues the EU process, must find some
solution better than the approach it took last January, when
a Diyanet letter asserted that cemevis, where one-tenth of
the population worship, "violate Islamic principles and
Turkish law."
ARNETT