Bahçeli proposes 10-point Alevi initiative

The leader of the opposition Nationalist Movement Party, or MHP, has blamed the ruling Justice and Development Party, or AKP, for the lack of progress in granting more and equal rights to the Alevi community.

Saying his party is ready to take the first steps immediately and solve the issue in Parliament, MHP leader Devlet Bahçeli proposed Tuesday a set of 10 articles to lay out a solution to the problem.

Bahçeli’s first proposal is to open a Turkey Alevism Research Center with state aid in order to provide qualified education and staff about Alevism. The second proposal calls for this center to be supported financially by a special allocation from the budget while its administration remains autonomous.

Thirdly, Bahçeli has said, there should be a Sufism Sciences Department in theology faculties at universities in order to further educate Alevi leaders. He also called for the education minister to add objective, correct and scientific information compiled directly by the Alevi community into religion classes in the curriculum.

In order to make that change, a special expertise commission composed of expert academics, theologians and Alevi leaders should be launched, according to the fifth proposed item.

The Culture Ministry and related institutions should cooperate in creating an inventory of  the community’s historically and culturally significant people and their works. This should also be complemented by the translation of publications from foreign languages into Turkish where applicable, according to the sixth article of Bahçeli’s proposal.

A separate article urges the Religious Affairs Directorate to work in harmony in order to keep these publications loyal to their originals, while another recommends there should be structural reforms in the directorate so it can represent the Alevi’s Islamic beliefs as well.

Without either creating a conflict with mosques or becoming overly politicized, the cemevi, an Alevi house of worship, should be accepted as an important place to the community, the proposal added.

The last article offered by the MHP says the state should support cemevis by allocating money from the budget.