Striking a Balance between Old and New
"Let us unite, let us be as giants and let us be full of life!" The appeal rings out in Turkish as Ali Balkiz addresses his listeners in Strasbourg. An audience of around 7000 applaud the chairman of the largest federation of Alevi organisations in Turkey. It's an appeal that rings familiarly in the ears of the Turkish religious community: the words belonging to Haci Bektas Veli, who in the 13th century had the greatest influence on the forming of Alevi doctrine.
Alevis have flocked into Alsace from all over France as well as from neighbouring Germany. They are here to celebrate the tenth anniversary of the Federation of Alevis in France (FUAF).
It's with major events such as this that the Alevis want to show how united and how vibrant their community is. The number of Alevis in the EU has been estimated at more than one million, with 150,000 of these in France. The largest Alevi community in Europe is in Germany and numbers around 600,000.
Alevi and Republican values
The idea behind the celebration in Strasbourg is to create a feeling of unity, a sense of belonging to one big family. At the same time, however, the federation's anniversary has highlighted the divided sense of identity within a community that is split between France and Turkey.
On the one hand the former immigrant workers and their children have integrated well into their new home country, as FUAF chairman Durak Aslan emphasises. The majority of them already have French passports. The French Republic's ideals of Liberty, Equality and Fraternity are also Alevi values, according to Aslan. Many children speak only broken Turkish. A fact that makes it necessary to have several of the speeches in Strasbourg translated into Turkish.
However, in terms of family relationships, as well as cultural and emotional attachments, the community still has a strong orientation towards Turkey. None of the speakers' neglects to praise the opportunities available to the Alevis in the EU, but at the same time they do not forget to complain about their lack of recognition on the Bosporus either.
"The Alevis in Europe enjoy modernity, democracy and the separation of state and religion. In Turkey, on the other hand, they are still living in the Dark Ages," complains Turgut Öker, chairman of the Federation of Alevi Communities in Europe. FUAF boss Aslan points out that there are 20 million Alevis in Turkey: "In spite of their large number they are oppressed."
This is the experience of the Alevis all over Europe: In addition to their faith, the thing that unites them most is their collective memory of centuries of marginalisation.
Marginalised by Ottomans and Turks
The Alevi doctrine arose in the Middle Ages in what is now Turkey. Alevism unites Islamic and non-Islamic elements. The Alevis revere Allah, the Islamic prophet Mohammed and his son-in-law Ali.
The name is also derived from Ali, and means ‘the followers of Ali'. Unlike Sunni Muslims, however, the majority of Alevis do not pray five times a day. Nor do they go to mosques. Their own place of worship is known as a ‘cem house' and they are not followers of the Islamic sharia law. Over the centuries the Alevis have many times found themselves on the receiving end of persecution, condemned as unbelievers by Sunni scholars.
Though the Diyanet, the Turkish state religious authority, now acknowledges the Alevis as Muslims it uses this very fact to deny them religious autonomy. Cem houses are not officially recognised. Whilst Sunni prayer leaders are paid by the Turkish state, Alevi clerics are not.
Distrust of AK Party
Alevi children have to participate in general religious education classes, these, however, are biased toward the Sunnis. Reason enough for the majority of speakers in Strasbourg to demand that this subject be discontinued.
The ruling conservative Islamic party AKP run by Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan is seen as a threat by many Alevis. They accuse the AKP of secretly wishing to transform Turkey into an Islamic state. The attempt by the Erdogan government to lift the headscarf ban in Turkish universities has only strengthened the suspicions of it on the part of many Alevis. Most Alevi women do not wear a headscarf. Criticism of the current hearings against the AKP by the Turkish Public Prosecutor's Office is not forthcoming in Alsace.
While the French Alevis continue to denounce the lack of recognition their religion is given in Turkey, they are also building their own structures in the new homeland. Thirty-two clubs and associations from the area between the Rhine and the Atlantic coast have joined FUAF.
The new Strasbourg cem house may be rather inconspicuously tucked away in a district of slaughterhouses and warehouses but it is nevertheless the pride of the local association branch. In an institutional sense, too, new perspectives are beginning to open up for the Alevis in France. According to Durak Aslan, talks are currently being held on the setting up of a university chair of Alevi Studies in Strasbourg.
The pitfalls of pursuing state recognition
The days of celebration in Alsace also make clear that the Alevis are not as united as the federation's representatives would like one to believe. There are evident political and religious differences. The influential chairman of the Alevi Cem Foundation, Izzettin Dogan, comes in for some hefty criticism during a panel discussion, although he is not even present. Dogan cancelled his participation.
The Cem Foundation chairman has been working for years to try to win Alevism a voice in the Turkish state's religious bureaucracy. With most of the other Alevi associations in Turkey and Europe his efforts have been met with mistrust and rejection. In Strasbourg he is seen as divisive.
The differences of opinion move FUAF chairman Aslan to try to evoke a spirit of unity through an old Alevi saying: "There is only one path, but there are 1001 ways to walk it."
Andreas Gorzewski
© Qantara.de 2008
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