Main opposition New Party leader Özgür Özel has promised to grant equal rights to the Alevi community and address decades of unfulfilled grievances should his party form the next government.
“If this country is to be cleansed of evil, it is possible only by illuminating the darkness of our egos with the light of wisdom, as people who have equal rights and a shared future on these lands — Alevis, Sunnis, Kurds and Turks,” Özel said at an event in central Türkiye marking the legacy of Haji Bektash Veli.
Followers and political figures gathered in Nevşehir to commemorate the 13th-century mystic, whose teachings helped shape Alevism, a heterodox Islamic tradition. Estimates of Türkiye’s Alevi population vary widely, ranging from about 4 percent to 15 percent of the country’s population.
Özel called for equal citizenship and criticized the government’s approach of “treating Alevism as a cultural identity rather than a faith.”
“If a mosque is a place of worship, a cemevi is also a place of worship. Alevism is not a culture; it is a faith. The fact that Sunnis are directly affiliated with the presidency through [top religious authority] Diyanet, while Alevism is affiliated with the Culture Ministry, is blatant discrimination,” he said.
“The important thing is for everyone to feel equality in their hearts... It is our duty, our matter of honor, to fight this inequality.”
He also pledged that an opposition government would not favor one group over another.
“Even if we are the victims today, we will not become the oppressors of tomorrow. We will bury the evil we have witnessed in our hearts and embrace Türkiye’s future with brotherhood,” Özel said.
“They know that the politics of fear will end the day this nation holds each other’s hands.”
