The campaign, running under the slogan “We are no longer bound to the CHP,” has been gaining more ground. Alevi-Bektaşi Federation administrators, who held a conference on April 10-11, have emphasized that the country's social democrat parties are worn out and the movement too dispersed. The federation has had talks with İstanbul independent deputy Ufuk Uras, who has also been making an effort to find an “alternative left party,” the Social Democratic People's Party (SHP) and the “December 10 movement,” mainly made up of senior Confederation of Revolutionary Workers' Unions (DİSK) members. The Alevi-Bektaşi Federation is now planning to start a party of its own. It has had meetings across 25 provinces to find a new party that will deal with Alevi problems and a party line that will address left and social democratic concerns.
The grass roots of the party are “segments of the society that are victimized due to cultural or ethnic differences.” The group's steering committee includes Atilla Erden, one of the founding members of the Alevi-Bektaşi Federation, and Kazım Genç, the chairman of the federation against whom an assassination plot by the Ergenekon organization was recently uncovered.
The group will continue regional meetings it began on Aug. 15 in Hacıbektaş. Thee meetings will take place in Ankara and end on Oct. 11, after which the group plans to establish a political party. Similar meetings will be held in various provinces, including Tekirdağ, Sivas and Diyarbakır. The federation had staunchly opposed earlier government initiatives such as an iftar for Alevis and workshops looking for an answer to the Alevi question, dismissing them as an attempt at assimilation. It has also taken Turkey's compulsory religion courses to the European Court of Human Rights.
