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President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on Friday evening hosted an iftar (fast breaking-dinner) for the representatives of Turkey's Alevi communities on the occasion of the Islamic month of Muharram, the first month of the Islamic calendar when Shiites and Alevis commemorate and mourn for the Battle of Karbala.

Having almost completed its planned legislative program before officially taking over as the newly elected 64th government of Turkey, the Justice and Development Party (AKP) is expected to prioritize a fresh “Alevi opening” to address the status and rights of Alevi citizens.

ISTANBUL — Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu on Thursday announced a set of reforms that will grant greater rights to the country’s Alevi minority, including the legal recognition of their houses of worship.

The problems of Alevis in Turkey are mainly a result of the Constitution, which forms the basis of the government's discriminatory policies towards religious minorities, the Association of human rights and Solidarity for Oppressed Peoples (MAZLUM-DER) reported on Sunday.

Granting a legal status to Alevi worship houses, known as cemevis, is a “red line” for Turkey’s Religious Affairs Directorate (Diyanet), its head Mehmet Görmez has said, stating that “cemevis cannot be considered an alternative to mosques.”

Representatives of Alevi non-governmental organizations have filed a joint complaint on Thursday against Religious Affairs Directorate head Mehmet Görmez after he said that presenting cemevis -- the places of worship of Alevi Muslims -- as an alternative to mosques is a "red line" for the directorate.

Justice Minister Bekir Bozdağ has ordered an Alevi council to be established within the ministry to consult with Alevi opinion leaders to find solutions to the cemevi problem of the Alevi community in Turkey.

Turkey’s newly elected government has given signals that it may move to address the grievances of the country’s Alevi community through a new “Alevi opening.” Following its crushing election victory on Nov. 1, some think the Justice and Development Party (AKP) now has

The European Court of Human Rights has rejected Turkey's appeal to a ruling that Turkey's failure to exempt cemevis -- Alevi places of worship -- from paying their electricity bills and the existence of compulsory religious courses at Turkish schools are in violation of the article on discrimination in the European Convention on Human Rights, İzzettin Doğan, the president of the Cem Foundation, announced on Friday.

In 1924, a year after founding the Turkish Republic on the ruins of the Ottoman Empire, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the country’s new leader, abolished the Ottoman Caliphate, which had been the last remaining Sunni Islamic Caliphate since 1517. Having introduced a secular constitution and a Western-style civil and criminal legal code, Atatürk shut down the dervish lodges and religious schools, abolished polygamy, and introduced civil marriage and a national beauty contest. He granted women the