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Turkish Alawites Face Prejudice, Pressure by State

Izzettin Dogan, the chairman of the Cem Foundation, a major umbrella organization for Turkish Alewites, claims “there is a systemic cleansing of Alewites people from all state institutions – including the judiciary.”
A girl stands in a tomb, a holy site for the Alawite community, in the Samandag district of Hatay province, close to the border with Syria, July 27, 2012. An influx of Syrians fleeing President Bashar al-Assad's military onslaught is stoking tension in an area of Turkey known for religious tolerance and setting Turks who share the Syrian leader's creed against their own government. In the Turkish frontier province of Hatay, home to the Antioch of the Bible and a mix of confessional groups rare in an overwhe

Just holding elections is not enough unless wide respect of civil rights and pluralism principles is upheld. Unfortunately, Turkey lags behind developed societies in embracing religious tolerance and multiculturalism. The Turkish state continues to deny its people of Alawite origin the right to exercise their faith without being subjugated by the majority Sunni population.

Speaking to Al-Monitor, Izzettin Dogan, the chairman of the Cem Foundation, a major umbrella organization for Alawites in this country, compared Turkey’s Directorate of Religious Affairs to “a demon with unbelievable powers” and claimed that the head of this directorate is “Turkey’s real prime minister.”

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