AKP is insincere toward Alevis, says CHP deputy

ANKARA - Hürriyet Daily News

Hüseyin Aygün says the debate over CHP’s role in the Dersim massacres ‘points at the Justice and Development Party’s intention to settle scores with the Republic.’ DAILY NEWS photo, Selahattin SÖNMEZ

The attitude of senior officials toward Alevism shows that the government feels no respect for the community, according to a main opposition deputy who set off a storm of controversy over the Dersim massacre last month.
“The government does not have a sincere attitude toward the Alevis and other religious minorities,” said Republican People’s Party (CHP) deputy Hüseyin Aygün, who ignited the debate on the 1938 operation targeting Alevis in Dersim and eventually resulted in an apology from the prime minister.
“The apology [of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan] will not mean anything unless the government outlines policies for the rights of religious minority groups,” Aygün told the Hürriyet Daily News yesterday.
Aygün said Erdoğan’s apology was important but raised doubts over his sincerity. Referring to Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu, who said, “If Alevism means loving Ali, then I’m the greatest Alevi” and Deputy Prime Minister Bekir Bozdağ, who implied that cemevis, where Alevis gather for religious rituals, could not be legally deemed a house of worship, Aygün said: “It seems the prime minister’s apology [on the Dersim massacre] will not be of much use.”
Aygün said the debate over CHP’s role in the Dersim massacres pointed at the Justice and Development Party’s (AKP) intention to settle scores with the Republic. “Turkey has become a country whose state apparatus has been ‘religionized.’ The democratic society is irked,” he said.
Aygün said the mass killings of Armenians under the Ottoman Empire during World War I should be also debated, but contested using the term “genocide” to describe the events. “This debate should serve for the fraternity of societies, not for creating new prejudices and hatred.”
The term “genocide” is an obstacle for the debate and this issue should be discussed on a humanitarian basis and “without using formally produced terms,” he said.