Turk, Alevi

Alevi Turks are Turkish-speaking Alevis of Anatolia, descended from the Oghuz Turkmen tribes who settled the region from the 11th to the 13th centuries and took up a Sufi, pro-Alid form of Islam carried by wandering dervishes such as Haji Bektash Veli. In the 15th and 16th centuries many backed the Safavid shahs of Iran, earning the name Kızılbaş ('red heads', after their twelve-folded red caps); Ottoman campaigns and massacres drove them into remote villages, where they kept their faith through hereditary holy lineages (ocak) and the secrecy of the cem. The name Alevi means 'follower of Ali'. Under the Republic they embraced Atatürk's secularism, but violence against them returned in the pogroms of Malatya and Maraş (1978), Çorum (1980), the Sivas Madımak arson (1993) and Istanbul's Gazi quarter (1995). Subgroups include the Tahtacı ('plank-makers') of the Taurus and Aegean forests and the Çepni of the Black Sea. Alevis of Kurdish and Zaza speech, the Abdals and the Arab Alawites (Nusayris) of Hatay are separate peoples. Large Alevi communities live in Germany and elsewhere in Western Europe.

Alevi culture centres on the cem and its music: sacred songs (deyiş, nefes) by the poets Pir Sultan Abdal, Yunus Emre, Kaygusuz Abdal and Shah Ismail (Hatayi) are sung to the bağlama, which Alevis call the 'stringed Qur'an', and the aşık tradition of Aşık Veysel and Neşet Ertaş grew among them. Men and women worship, dance the semah and eat together, women do not cover their heads, and social drinking is common, which sets them apart from devout Sunnis. Rites of passage include musahiplik, a lifelong covenant of brotherhood between two men and their families sealed before a dede, and the forty-day kırklama after birth. Village communities settle disputes in the cem through the dede's judgement and can shun offenders (düşkün). The calendar turns on the twelve-day Muharrem fast ending with aşure pudding, the Hızır fast in February, Nevruz and the Hacıbektaş commemoration each August. Marriage is traditionally within the community.

Alevis believe in God (Hak), Muhammad and Ali as one light, the Twelve Imams and the hidden Mahdi, and seek to become the 'perfect human' (insan-ı kâmil) by passing through the 'four gates and forty stations': law, mystical path, knowledge and truth. The five daily prayers, mosque attendance, the Ramadan fast and the hajj are not practised; the cem is their worship, led by a dede from a hereditary lineage traced to the Prophet's family, with twelve ritual services, sacred songs, semah and a shared meal (lokma). Visits to saints' tombs (Hacıbektaş, Abdal Musa, Pir Sultan Abdal, Hasandede) and vows are central, and older nature and ancestor customs survive in the villages. Practice has weakened with urbanisation: many urban Alevis attend cem only at funerals and Muharrem and treat Alevism as a secular, left-leaning identity, while the state's cemevi policy and Sunni-oriented schooling push others toward assimilation. Since the 1990s, Alevi foundations, federations and the diaspora have revived cem in city cemevis, of which 2,102 were counted in 2024.

• Bible translation: Full Bible in Turkish (Kitab-ı Mukaddes, Kutsal Kitap Yeni Çeviri), online on bible.com and bible.is.
• Jesus Film: Available in Turkish.
• Audio and media: GRN Turkish recordings; SAT-7 TÜRK on Türksat 4A.
• Christian presence: Very few known believers of Alevi background (JP 0.06%); no Alevi-focused congregation found. Turkish Protestant churches (c. 8,000 members) are open to them.
• Barriers: Inherited communal identity and loyalty to martyrs; suspicion of all organised religion; secular-political framing of faith; fear of further stigma.
• Openings: Rejection of legalism, devotion expressed in music and poetry, and the longing for the 'perfect human'.

Alevi identity today is shaped by remembered violence. In December 1978 Sunni and nationalist mobs killed over 100 Alevis in Kahramanmaraş; in 1980 clashes in Çorum killed dozens. On 2 July 1993 a mob set fire to the Madımak Hotel in Sivas during an Alevi cultural festival honouring Pir Sultan Abdal, killing 33 writers and musicians and two hotel staff; its anniversary is the main Alevi day of mourning. In March 1995 shootings at coffee houses in Istanbul's Gazi quarter set off riots in which police killed over a dozen Alevis. Earlier, the Ottoman campaigns against the Kızılbaş in the 16th century and the 1937-38 Dersim operations against Kurdish and Zaza Alevis form the longer memory.