Turkey’s sizable Alevi community, which represents a distinct and often stigmatized branch in Islam, has won an important legal victory in its efforts to push the government to grant Alevi places of worship the same privileges that the mosques of the Sunni majority enjoy. In late November, the Appeals Court ruled that the state should meet the electricity expenses of cemevis, the Alevi houses of worship, just as it does for mosques. The ruling meant also an acknowledgment of the cemevi as a house of worship.

The ruling of the Appeals Court is important, but the problem is hardly a new one. A similar lawsuit had made its way to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in 2016. The court’s Grand Chamber ruled that the Turkish state should meet the expenses of cemevis as well. Ankara, however, did not heed the judgment.

While the government failed to implement the ruling, Alevis did so in a de facto manner. Izzettin Dogan, the head of the Cem Foundation, a leading Alevi organization that initiated the legal struggle, told Al-Monitor that cemevis affiliated with the foundation stopped paying electricity bills in the wake of the European court’s ruling. “We have maintained that the state cannot discriminate between its citizens, both under its own laws and the ECHR ruling,” Dogan said. “Quite a lot of debt accumulated, and when the companies asked for payment, we would say, ‘Well, go ahead and cut off the electricity of the cemevis.’ They could not dare to go ahead as they knew they would confront the Alevis if they did. We are still not paying the electricity bills.”

That’s how the situation stands on the ground, but a legal guarantee remains important for the Alevis because, for them, this is not simply a question of expenses. The struggle they have launched with the electricity demand is, in fact, a struggle for a recognition by the state and, furthermore, a struggle for secularism.