Turkey: Alevis demand worship sites, tension with cabinet

ANKARA - The Turkish government of nationalist Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, a Sunni Muslim, and the Shiite Alevi community are at odds over the Cemevi, places of worship of Turkey's minority which are not officially recognized by the state.

In the past few days the president of Ankara's parliament Cemil Cicek rejected a request by an Alevi MP with the Social Democrat opposition Huseyn Aygun to open Cemevi prayer sites in Turkey's Great Assembly.

Cicek had responded that the Alevis, a minority liberal branch of Islam, are Muslims and therefore must pray in mosques, a stance supported by deputy premier Bekir Bozbag who said 'the Alevi is not a separate religion'. (...)