President Gül’s Tunceli visit likely to help Alevi initiative

Gül will be visiting a cemevi, an Alevi place of worship, and is expected to speak about the government’s initiative in this small province of nearly 100,000, whose population is mostly Alevi.

Tunceli Governor Mustafa Taşkesen released a written statement yesterday confirming that Gül will be exchanging information with municipality officials and representatives of the Association for Spreading the Hacı Bektaş Veli Culture on the cemevi and its problems. The governor’s statement said the president will also meet with representatives of local civil society groups and listen to their concerns. The governor said he treats this first presidential visit in 19 years as a major opportunity to display the beauty of the city, which has always been in the public spotlight due to negative news reports, and to discuss its problems.

Gül will first attend the ceremony to mark the start of the academic year at Tunceli University. Later, he will visit Governor Taşkesen and Mayor Edibe Şahin of the Democratic Society Party (DTP). Later he is expected to address the residents of the city in front of the mayor’s office.

Gül’s visit comes at a time when the government has been organizing a series of workshops that aim to find solutions to the problems faced by Turkey’s Alevi population.

Meanwhile, State Minister Faruk Çelik, who has been coordinating the government’s Alevi initiative, spoke to the Anatolia news agency yesterday, saying his party was not undertaking the initiative for the sake of votes. He also warned other politicians against exploiting the issue for political gain.

The minister also briefly talked about the past workshops on the Alevi question the government has held so far with the participation of journalists, academics, writers and representatives of Alevi organizations. He said the different groups that came together in these workshops had worked to produce brilliant opinions through discussion, which, he said, have been very productive. He said he believed the completion of all planned workshops would bring about healthy proposals that would contribute to a settlement.

He also stated that the gradual implementation of the recommendations in the final report that will be produced at the end of the process would begin soon after the document is completed.

Çelik said he believed the solutions to the problems of Alevis had to be produced by Alevis, noting that they knew what they wanted very well, dismissing criticism from some groups that “Alevis do not know what they want.”

The minister stated that the Alevi workshops had also helped to break prejudices on both sides. “I can say we have come a long way in this regard. We also learn a lot from these workshops. They offer the best platform for dialogue.”

Next workshop slated for Nov. 11

The fifth session of the government’s workshops is set to be held on Nov. 11 in İstanbul.

The session will bring together several journalists, including Ali Bulaç, Ali Bayramoğlu, Ergun Babahan, Mehmet Barlas, Mustafa Karaalioğlu, Erdal Şafak, Etyen Mahçupyan, Fehmi Koru, Hakan Albayrak, Oral Çalışlar, Ali Kırca, Ahmet Hakan, Can Dündar, Emre Kongar, İsmail Küçükkaya, Mehmet Ali Birand, Neşe Düzel, Ömer Laçiner, Taha Akyol, Uğur Dündar, Yiğit Bulut and Ertuğrul Özkök.

The journalists will discuss the role of the media in the solution to the Alevi question. The session will be moderated by Necdet Subaşı, and the government will be represented by Labor and Social Security Minister Çelik.

The first session of the workshops was held on June 3 in Ankara, where Alevi organizations, NGO representatives and commentators discussed the demands of the Alevi community. In the second session, a number of academics and intellectuals as well as experts shared their views and research about the Alevi issue. The third session was held at the Rixos Grand Ankara on Aug. 19, and the fourth session was also held in Ankara on Sept. 30.