US embassy cable - 05ISTANBUL1297

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, Istanbul 
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