In his introduction to the collection, titled “Alevi Memory,” Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan stressed the significance of the meetings. “They are a milestone for the state in reviewing and even reconstructing its historical memory about Alevi citizens,” he wrote.The workshops, which started last June and ended in late January of this year, were the first of their kind in the republic’s history. Twenty-five hundred copies were printed which will later be sent to deputies, university rectors, the Directorate of Religious Affairs, editors-in-chief of newspapers and TV stations, writers and intellectuals as well as libraries across the country. It will also be promoted at a ceremony to be hosted by State Minister Faruk Çelik at a later date.
Erdoğan also drew attention to the steps his government has taken towards democratic consolidation, the expansion of freedoms and respect for human rights in his introduction to the set of books. He wrote that as part of this process, the problems of various segments of society were raised and extensively discussed with the aim of resolving all of them.
He also congratulated Çelik, who organized and chaired the Alevi workshops.
Çelik assessed the workshops in an article included in the collection. He pointed out that the texts of those discussions are must-have references and valuable for archives. “Actually these texts are indispensible [works that will help readers] learn about the issue and see the steps taken towards a resolution,” he wrote.
