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Refugee Review Tribunal AUSTRALIA RRT RESEARCH RESPONSE Research Response Number: TUR17613 Country: Turkey Date: 16 November 2005 Keywords: Turkey – Mersin – Kurdish Association – Kurdish Alevi Association This response was prepared by the Country Research Section of the Refugee Review Tribunal (RRT) after researching publicly accessible information currently available to the RRT within time constraints. This response is not, and does not purport to be, conclusive as to the merit of any particular claim to refugee status or asylum. Questions 1. Please provide the correct names (as used locally) and addresses of groups in Mersin representing Kurds or Alevis. RESPONSE 1. Please provide the correct names (as used locally) and addresses of groups in Mersin representing Kurds or Alevis. Groups Representing Kurds An organisation known as the “Kurdish Association” (Kurd-Der) appears to exist in Turkey but it is uncertain whether, or not, the group has a presence in Mersin (‘Turkey: Massive response to attack on Party of Labour’ 2005, Labour Net website, 13 March http://www.labournet.net/world/0503/emep1.html - Accessed 14 November 2005 – Attachment 1). The following list of pro-Kurdish groups in the city of Mersin was pieced together from a variety of sources. The groups, which were identified by name only, include: the Mesopotamian Cultural Centre (Mezopotamya Kültür Merkezi) (MKM); the Democratic People’s Party (Demokratik Halk Partisi) (DEHAP); the People’s Democratic Party (Turkey) (Halkin Demokrasi Partisi) (HADEP); the Mersin Society of help for the Families of Arrested People (TUAD-DER); the Kurdistan Workers Party (Partiya Karkerên Kurdistan) (PKK); the Mersin Migrants’ Association (Goc-Der); and the Migration and Humanitarian Aid Foundation (Göç ve İnsani Yardım Vakfı) (GIYAV). (For details, including some background information on the treatment of these groups, please see the following sources: ‘Protests rock Turkey over Iraq troop decision’ 2003, Colorado Campaign for Middle East Peace website, sourced from Agence France Presse, 8 October http://www.ccmep.org/2003_articles/Iraq/100803_protests_rock_turkey_over_iraq_t.htm - Accessed 14 November 2005 – Attachment 2; Poulton, H. 1999, ‘The Turkish State and Democracy’, The International Spectator online edition, Volume XXXIV, Number 1, January-March http://www.ciaonet.org/olj/iai/iai_99poh01.html - Accessed 14 November 2005 – Attachment 3; ‘Isolation of Ocalan is a provocation’ 2003, Kurdistan Observer website, 11 January http://home.cogeco.ca/~observer/12-1-03-apo-isolation-provocation.html - Accessed 14 November 2005 – Attachment 4; ‘Interesting Court Case Against Journalists’ 2002, International Association for Human Rights of the Kurds website, 1-12 May http://www.kurds.dk/english/2000/news101.html - Accessed 14 November 2005 – Attachment 5; Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada 2004, TUR42991.E – Turkey: The situation and treatment of members, supporters and sympathizers of leftist parties, particularly the People's Democratic Party (HADEP) and Democratic People's Party (DEHAP) (January 2003 - September 2004), 26 September – Attachment 6; ‘TUAD-DER manager arrested for saying “Dear Öcalan”’ 2005, Kurdish Info website http://www.kurdishinfo.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=4055 – Accessed 16 November 2005 – Attachment 7; ‘Organisations advocating for the rights of the displaced come under pressure’ 2005, Global IDP Database website http://www.db.idpproject.org/Sites/IdpProjectDb/idpSurvey.nsf/wViewCountries/92763F723 2F26653C1256E5F005D2798 - Accessed 14 November 2005 – Attachment 8; Harvey, B. 2005, ‘Ten injured as Kurdish protesters clash with Turkish police’, Associated Press Newswires, 5 September – Attachment 9; ‘Six Kurdish militants with propaganda caught in southern Turkey’ 2005, BBC Monitoring European, sourced from Anatolia News Agency, 28 January – Attachment 10.) Groups Representing Alevis or Alevi Kurds Information was not found among the sources consulted detailing the presence, specifically, of groups or political associations representing Alevi or Kurdish Alevi interests in Mersin. A wide variety of groups representing their interests at a national level do, however, exist in Turkey. Without always being clear or elaborative, country information indicates that these include the thirteen “Alevi-Bektasi” associations which are listed on the Alevi Bektasi website; “chain” organisations mentioned by Sefa Simsek, in “New Social Movements in Turkey Since 1980”, such as Pir Sultan Abdal Dernekleri (Pir Sultan Abdal Associations) and Haci Bektas Vakifalri (Haci Bektas Foundations); a confederation of 30 organisations known as the Kurdish Alevi Union (Kurt Alevi Birligi, KAB) which the Carnegie Commission states was “fostered” by the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK); the Association of Alevi-Bektashi Institutions or Union of Alevi-and-Bektashi Organizations (Alevi-Bektasi Kurumlar Birligi, ABKA) which was banned between February 2002 and April 2003 for allegedly “promoting a sectarian belief and religious separatism”; an umbrella group, for what Dr. Oehring of Internationales Katholishes Missionswerk describes as “state-approved Alevi institutions”, known as the “Republican Educational and Cultural Centre” (Cumhuriyetçi Eg˘itim ve Kültür Merkezi) (CEM) or CEM Foundation (Cem Vakfi); 60 associations known as Cemevi which “offer religious services to the Alevi Community” throughout Turkey; the Haci Bektas Veli Research Centre which as established in 1997 “as an affiliate of Gazi Univeristy”; and other, so-called, “Alevi convents (dergahlar), foundations (dernekler) and prayer centres (cemevler)”. (For details, please see the following sources: ‘Bazi Alevi-Bektasi Kurumlari’ Undated, Alevi Bektasi website http://www.alevibektasi.org/kurumlar.htm - Accessed 15 November 2005 – Attachment 11; Simsek, S. 2004, ‘New Social Movements in Turkey Since 1980’, Turkish Studies, Volume 5, Number 2, pp. 111-139 – Attachment 12; ‘The Building of Kurdish National Consciousness’ Undated, The Carnegie Commission on Preventing Deadly Conflict, The Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars website http://www.wilsoncenter.org/subsites/ccpdc/pubs/kur/chap03.pdf - Accessed 14 November 2005 – Attachment 13; Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada 2002, TURK38773.E – Turkey: Information concerning Haci Bektas Veli Associaion; whether it it still operating; if not why and when did it cease operations (1998-2002), 10 April – Attachment 14; UK Home Office 2004, Turkey: Country Report, April – Attachment 15; Oehring, O. 2002, Human Rights in Turkey – Secularism = Religious Freedom?, Internationales Katholishes Missionswerk website http://www.missio- aachen.de/Images/MR%20T%C3%BCrkei%20englisch_tcm14-11238.pdf – Accessed 14 November 2005 – Attachment 16; ‘Turkey: Court ruling shows authorities’ refusal to see Alevism as a religious community’ 2002, Religioscope website, sourced from Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 18 February http://www.religioscope.com/info/notes/2002_023_alevis.htm - Accessed 14 November 2005 – Attachment 17; Poyraz, B. 2005, ‘The Turkish State and Alevis: Changing Parameters of an Uneasy Relationship’, Middle Eastern Studies, Volume 41, Number 4, pp. 503-516 – Attachment 20.) Writing about “the role of the media in the revival or Alevi identity in Turkey, Omer Caha also notes that: [Since the 1980s] [t]he Alevis have organised under the banner of associations and foundations. Cem Vakfi (Cem Foundation), Pir Sultan Abdal Dernegi (Pir Sultan Abdal Association), Haci Bektasi Veli Dernegi (Haci Bektasi Veli Association) and Karacahmet Deregi (Karacaahmet Association) in particular are the prominent Alevi organisations. Moreover, there are countless Alevi associations at the local and national level. Most of Alevi associations or foundations have been associated with the name Haci Bektas Veli, Pir Sultan Abdal, Karacaoglan or Sahkulu, who are the cult names among Avelis (…). Alevi organisations develop solidarity among Alevis, they also function to play a crucial role in the identity formation of Alevis… [T]he intensification of Alevis in large cities after the 1980s has enabled them to establish their own congregational centres – cem houses and dergahs (Caha, O. 2004, ‘The Role of the Media in the Revival of Alevi Identity’, Social Identities, Volume 10, Number 3, pp. 333 – Attachment 21). Country information generally indicates that Alevis are “staunch advocates of secularism” and have traditionally situated themselves “on the left of the political spectrum”. David Zeidan goes so far as to state that the Alevis reinterpreted their faith in a “socialist and Marxist idiom” in response to the appearance of Sunni fundamentalism in the 1970s. (‘The Building of Kurdish National Consciousness’ Undated, The Carnegie Commission on Preventing Deadly Conflict, The Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars website http://www.wilsoncenter.org/subsites/ccpdc/pubs/kur/chap03.pdf - Accessed 14 November 2005 – Attachment 13; Zeidan, D. 1995,’The Aelvi of Anatolia’, Angel Fire website http://www.angelfire.com/az/rescon/ALEVI.html - Accessed 15 November 2005 – Attachment 18; McDowell, D. 2002, ‘Asylum Seekers from Turkey II’ 2002, Asylum Aid website http://www.asylumaid.org.uk/Publications/Turkey report II (Nov 2002).doc Accessed 16 November 2005 – Attachment 19). List of Sources Consulted Internet Sources: Google search engine UNHCR REFWORLD UNHCR Refugee Information Online Databases: Public FACTIVA Reuters Business Briefing DIMIA BACIS Country Information REFINFO
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  • Alevi Communities in Western Europe: Identity and Religious Strategies Elise Massicard

    Alevi Communities in Western Europe: Identity and Religious Strategies Elise Massicard

    Alevi Communities in Western Europe: Identity and Religious Strategies Elise Massicard To cite this version: Elise Massicard. Alevi Communities in Western Europe: Identity and Religious Strategies. Yearbook of Muslims in Europe, Brill, p. 561-592, 2010, 9789004184756. halshs-00801075 HAL Id: halshs-00801075 https://halshs.archives-ouvertes.fr/halshs-00801075 Submitted on 8 Mar 2017 HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access L’archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est archive for the deposit and dissemination of sci- destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents entific research documents, whether they are pub- scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non, lished or not. The documents may come from émanant des établissements d’enseignement et de teaching and research institutions in France or recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires abroad, or from public or private research centers. publics ou privés. Alevi communities in Western Europe: identity and religious strategies Elise Massicard1 In: Yearbook of Muslims in Europe, Brill, Leiden, 2010, pp. 561-592. 1. INTRODUCTION Aleviness2 has become a Western European phenomenon. Today, Alevi organisations exist in Austria, Belgium,3 Denmark, France, Great-Britain, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden and Switzerland - not to mention Australia, Canada and the United States. Although most Alevis settled in Western European countries in the 1960s, 1970s and early 1980s, Aleviness has only recently appeared in the public spheres of settlement countries, indicating that this trend is due not so much to the migration process itself, as to the growing public awareness of questions regarding Islam. Another important factor has been a general Alevi resurgence, observed both in Turkey and in the settlement countries since the late 1980s.4 This development leads me to distinguish between the terms Aleviness, to refer to the social fact, and Alevism, to refer to activism in the name of Aleviness, ‘Alevi’ and ‘Alevist’ being used to refer to the adherents of ‘Aleviness’ and ‘Alevism’ respectively.