Over the past several years, Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) has often come under fire for stirring social fault lines and polarizing society. To give only a few examples, the AKP government has stubbornly maintained compulsory religious classes in schools despite a judgment by the European Court of Human Rights that they are discriminatory for teaching exclusively Sunni Islam and refused to formally recognize the Alevis’ cemevis (houses of prayer) as houses of worship. The main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), for its part, has long been criticized for disregarding the religious sensitivities of Sunni Muslims, who make up the overwhelming majority of Turkey’s population.

In the Mediterranean province of Antalya, Turkey’s main tourist hub, a CHP mayor is leading a pioneering initiative these days. Umit Uysal, elected mayor in March 2014 of Muratpasa, Antalya’s largest district, has introduced a multi-cultural, multi-religious approach to municipal services, unprecedented in Turkey.

Local administrations across Turkey that are run by the AKP have long provided various funeral services to people in their constituencies, but they have been limited to the Sunni faith. In this context, the Muratpasa municipality’s funeral services department has launched a groundbreaking move.

In addition to employing two imams, one male and one female, the municipality has signed protocols with a dede, an Alevi religious elder; a Christian priest; and a rabbi — under which people from those religious communities have received municipal assistance for the funerals of their dead over the past year. Out of the 496 funerals the municipality has assisted during this period, 30% belonged to Alevis. The number of Christian funerals numbered only seven, as foreign nationals — who dominate the region’s Christian population — are mostly assisted by their private insurance companies, while Jews have yet to apply for assistance. In another novelty, to match the fast-breaking meals municipalities offer during Ramadan, the Muratpasa municipality distributes the traditional “Asure” pudding to Alevis during their holy month of Muharram and organizes similar activities on Christian and Jewish religious holidays.