Dokument #1171354
IRB – Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada (Autor)
The DIRB was unable to find any information
on the above subject in any of the sources it consulted. However,
the hidden tensions between the Alevis and the Sunni majority of
the Turkish population have flared up on several occasions in
recent centuries (Middle East International, 17 March
1995, 15). The Sunni majority in Turkey has long been mistrustful
of the Alevi community which is perceived as being heretical and
having links with the Kurdish nationalist movement, as well as with
the far left and the communists (Contemporary Religions: A
World Guide 1992, 82). According to the Middle East
International, the most recent incidents took place in the town
of Sivas in 1993, when 37 people were killed in an attack by a
group of Islamists who set fire to a hotel in which Alevis,
travelling to a festival, were staying (17 March 1995, 15).
According to the same source, since the Sivas incident the Alevis
have been feeling more and more threatened by the rise of political
Islam in Turkey (ibid.).
For general information concerning internal
flight alternatives in Turkey, please consult Response to
Information Request TUR15543.E of 22 October 1993.
For more comprehensive information about
the Alevi community, the differences between the Alevis and the
Sunnis, their religious organization and the tensions experienced
within this community, please consult the attached article entitled
"Islamic Reform and the Mystic Tradition in Eastern Turkey"
published in Archives Européennes de Sociologie
(1969). For information concerning the rebirth of religious
tensions between the Sunnis and the Alevis in the 1950s, 1960s and
1970s, please consult the attached article entitled "Turkey: Islam
and Westernization" published in Religions and Societies: Asia
and the Middle East (1982).
This response was prepared after
researching publicly accessible information currently available to
the DIRB within time constraints. This response is not, and does
not purport to be, conclusive as to the merit of any particular
claim to refugee status or asylum. Please find below the list of
sources consulted in researching this information request.
References
Contemporary Religions: A World
Guide. 1992. Edited by Ian Harris, Stuart Mews, Paul Morris
and John Shepherd. Harlow, Essex: Longman Group, UK.
Middle East International
[London]. 17 March 1995. No. 496. Nicole Pope. "Turkey: Communal
Discord."
Attachments
Archives Européennes de
Sociologie. 1969. Vol. 10, No. 1. Nur Yalman. "Islamic Reform
and the Mystic Tradition in Eastern Turkey," pp. 41-60.
Contemporary Religions: A World
Guide. 1992. Edited by Ian Harris, Stuart Mews, Paul Morris
and John Shepherd. Harlow, Essex: Longman Group, pp. 81-82.
Mardin, Serif. 1982. "Turkey: Islam and
Westernization" Religions and Societies: Asia and the Middle
East. Edited by Carlo Caldarola. Berlin: Mouton Publishers,
pp. 171-73, 184-87, 194-95.
Middle East International
[London]. 17 March 1995. No. 496. Nicole Pope. "Turkey: Communal
Discord," p. 15.
Other Sources Consulted
Amnesty International. Annual.
Amnesty International Report. New York : Amnesty International.
Foreign Broadcast Information Service
(FBIS) Reports. Daily.
The Middle East [London].
Monthly.
Middle East Focus [North York,
Ontario]. Quarterly.
Middle East International
[London/New York]. Semi-monthly.
Middle East Report
[Washington]. Semi-monthly.
News From Middle East Watch
[New York]. Monthly.
World Directory of Minorities.
1990. London: Minority Rights Groups International.
Information on internal flight alternatives for Alevis [TUR20153.FE] (Anfragebeantwortung, Französisch)