Kemerê Duzgi: The Protector of Dersim (pilgrimage, social transformation, and revitalization of the Raa Haqi religion)

ABSTRACT

This article focuses on a well-known pilgrimage site of Kurdish Alevis, a heavily suppressed ethno-religious minority in the Dersim region (Turkey). Forced modernization politics in the 20th century destroyed their rural way of life and social structure. Nevertheless, Kurdish Alevis maintain their faith in Dersim as ancestral sacred land, referring primarily to non-human entities, most of which are natural, such as mountains, rivers, lakes, and trees. They uphold their beliefs while engaging with contemporary religious-political discourses. Depending on worshipping animate and inanimate natural objects, the cosmology of the Raa Haqı is evaluated from a different angle.

Duzgı, an isolated mountain, is one of Dersim’s most significant jiares (sacred places) and is a powerful religious symbol of Kurdish Alevi identity. Annually, tens of thousands of Kurdish Alevis come from around the world to Duzgı for pilgrimage. This article, based upon data collected during long-term ethnographical fieldwork on the mountain, will provide a framework for understanding Kurdish Alevis’ political context, beliefs, and practices, as well as an overview of anthropological approaches that inform debates on new animism and will focus on pilgrimage practices and show how Duzgı contributes to the consolidation of a fragile community’s collective consciousness and contemporary ethno-politics.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

¹ Dersim was a principality established by the Ottomans during the 19^th century in eastern Anatolia. The core of the region, known as ‘iç-Dersim’ (inner-Dersim) in Turkish reports of the time, has always had a majority population of Kurdish Alevi tribes (for a brief history of Dersim see Erdal Gezik and Ahmet Kerim Gültekin, eds. Kurdish Alevis and the Case of Dersim: Historical and Contemporary Insights (Lanham: Lexington Books, 2019). Over time, the name Dersim has become a synonym for a specific region where Kırmancki- and Kurmanci-speaking Kurdish Alevis live, to the extent that the expression ‘being from Dersim’ (Dersimli, in Turkish) is now understood to denote an ethno-religious identity both in Turkey and in Western diaspora (Yasemin Gülsüm Acar, ‘Kurdish Alevis in the Turkish-Kurdish Peace Process: Reflections on Conducting Research in Turkey’s Buffer Zone’, in Researching Peace, Conflict, and Power in the Field, ed. Yasemin Gülsüm Acar, Sigrun Marie Moss, Özden Melis Uluğ (Switzerland: Springer—Peace Psychology Book Series, 2020) 197–215). Following the foundation of the modern Turkish Republic in 1935, however, the region was officially renamed as Tunceli. Meaning Bronze-Hand in Turkish, this name is intended to symbolize the ultimate victory of the republic against feudal Kurdish tribes (Ahmet Kerim Gültekin, ‘Dersim as a Sacred Land—Contemporary Kurdish Alevi Ethno-Politics and Environmental Struggle’, in Ecological Solidarity and the Kurdish Freedom Movement Thought, Practice, Challenges, and Opportunities, ed. Stephen E. Hunt (Maryland: Lexington Books, 2021), 225–243.

² Although the Raa Haqi religion of Kurdish Alevis has long been viewed as a part of Anatolian Alevi culture, in this article, I consider it an independent belief system, which exhibits certain interesting similarities in cultural patterns and beliefs with some other Middle Eastern self-contained ethno-religious communities such as Ezidis (Yezidis) and Yaresan (Ehli Hakk, Kakai) (See Philip G. Kreyenbroek and Khanna Omarkhali, ‘Kurdish Religious Minorities in the Modern Wrold’, in The Cambridge History of the Kurds, ed. Hamit Bozarslan, Cengiz Güneş, Veli Yadırgı (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2021), 533–559). For a detailed introduction to the Raa Haqi belief system see Erdal Gezik, ‘The Kurdish Alevis: The Followers of the Path of Truth (Raa Haq/Riya Heqi)’, in The Cambridge History of the Kurds, ed. Hamit Bozarslan, Cengiz Güneş, Veli Yadırgı (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2021), 560–580; Ahmet Kerim Gültekin, Kurdish Alevism: Creating New Ways of Practicing the Religion (Leipzig: Leipzig University, Working Paper Series of the HCAS ‘Multiple Secularities—Beyond the West, Beyond Modernities’ 18, 2019) and Dilşa Deniz, ‘Kurdish Alevi Belief System, ReyaHeqi/Raa Haqi: Structure, Networking, Ritual and Function’, in Kurdish Alevis and the Case of Dersim: Historical and Contemporary Insights, ed. Erdal Gezik and Ahmet Kerim Gültekin (Lanham: Lexington Books, 2019), 45–75.

³ Jiare is the Kırmancki word used for both sacred places and sacred-mystic objects. Some Kurdish Alevis speak Kurmanci while some speak Kırmancki (also known as Zazaki). The debate on whether Kırmancki should be defined as a dialect of Kurdish or as an independent language is ongoing. See Mehemed Malmisanij, ‘The Kırmanjki (Zazaki) dialect of Kurdih Language and the Issues It Faces’, in The Cambridge History of the Kurds, ed. Hamit Bozarslan, Cengiz Güneş, Veli Yadırgı (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2021), 663–687. Turkish is also widely spoken in contemporary Dersim and the Turkish term ziyaret translates as jiare. In the contemporary, worshipping in Dersim is performed in above mentioned three languages.

⁴ For the first edited volume on Kurdish Alevism see Gezik and Gültekin, Kurdish Alevis. Also see Ümit Çetin, Celia Jenkins and Suavi Aydın, ‘Alevi Kurds: History, Politics and Identity’, special issue, Kurdish Studies 8, no. 1 (London: Transnational Press London, 2020).

⁵ Sabine Strasser and Mustafa Akçınar, ‘Dersim Across Borders: Political Transmittances Between the Kurdish-Turkish Province Tunceli and Europe’, in Migration and Social Remittances in a Global Europe, ed. Magdalena Nowicka and Vojin Šerbedžija (London: Palgrave Mcmillian, 2016): 143–163.

⁶ Gültekin, Kurdish Alevism.

⁷ See Dilşa Deniz, ‘Re-assessing the Genocide of Kurdish Alevis in Dersim, 1937–38’, Genocide Studies and Prevention 14, no. 2 (2020): 20–43, Hans Lukas Kieser, ‘Dersim Massacre 1937–1938’, Mass Violence and Resistance—Research Network, https://www.sciencespo.fr/mass-violence-war-massacre-resistance/en/document/dersim-massacre-1937-1938.html and Nicole Watts, ‘Relocating Dersim: Turkish State-Building and Kurdish Resistance, 1931–1938’, New Perspectives on Turkey 23, (2000): 5–30.

⁸ Joost Jongerden, ‘Village Evacuation and Reconstruction in Kurdistan (1993–2002)’, Études Rurales 186, no. 2, (2010): 77–100.

⁹ For a more detailed analysis of this era, see Martin van Bruinessen, ‘Aslını İnkâr Eden Haramzadedir!: The Debate on the Ethnic Identity of the Kurdish Alevis’, in Syncretistic Religious Communities in the Near East, ed. Krisztina Kehl-Bodrogi, Barbara Kellner-Heinkele, and Anke Otter-Beaujean (Leiden: Brill, 1997), 1–23.

¹⁰ Gültekin, Kurdish Alevism.

¹¹ Ayşe Betül Çelik, ‘Alevis, Kurds and Hemşehris: Alevi Kurdish Revival in the Nineteens’, in Turkey’s Alevi Enigma: A Comphrehensive Overview, ed. Paul J. White and Joost Jongerden (Leiden, Boston: Brill, 2003), 141–157.

¹² Janroj Keles, ‘The Politics of Religious and Ethnic Identity among Kurdish Alevis in the Homeland and Diaspora’, in Religious Minorities in Kurdistan: Beyond Mainstream, ed. Khanna Omarkhali (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 2014), 173–227.

¹³ For recent ethnographical work on pilgrimage at Duzgı see Ahmet Kerim Gültekin, Kutsal Mekanın Yeniden Üretimi—Kemeré Dızgı’dan Düzgün Babaya Dersim Aleviliğinde Müzakereler ve Kültür Örüntüleri (İstanbul: Bilim ve Gelecek Kitaplığı, 2020). Anthropological and intellectual literature on the Duzgı mountain is quite scarce. See Dilşa Deniz, ‘The Path: Dızgun Bawa, As an Example of Relation Between Belief and Life Style’, Religious Inquiries 4, no. 8 (2015): 63–82; Hüseyin Çakmak, Dersim Aleviliği: Raa Haqi (Ankara: Kalan Yayınları, 2013), 180–198; Dilşa Deniz, Yol/Re: Dersim İnanç Sembolizmi—Antropolojik Bir Yaklaşım (İstanbul: İletişim Yayınları, 2012), 155–291; Ahmet Kerim Gültekin, Tunceli’de Kutsal Mekan Kültü (Ankara: Kalan Yayınları, 2004), 115–163; Oda Feber and Doris Grässlin, Die Herrenlosen—Leben mit Einem Kurdischen Dorf (Bremen: Edition CON, 1998) and Oda Feber, ‘Düzgün Baba Ziyareti’, Berhem 1 (1992): 22–24. Garnik Asatrian and Victoria Arakelova, ‘The Yezidi Pantheon’, Iran & the Caucasus 8, no. 2 (2004): 231–279 also provide interesting analyses of Duzgı, identifying similarities between the Raa Haqi religion and Iranian rooted ethno-religious communities such as Ezidis.

¹⁴ Gültekin, Kutsal Mekanın Yeniden Üretimi, 252–279.

¹⁵ In the Raa Haqi religion, as in some other Alevi groups, there are two main caste-like socio-religious societal positions. These are members of Ocaks (sacred lineages), who hold the highest religious authority, and talips, who follow their respective Ocaks. All positions are gained by virtue of birth and cannot be changed. Further elaboration will be provided in the following.

¹⁶ Edward Burnett Tylor, Primitive Culture: Researches Into the Development of Mythology, Philosophy, Religion, Language, Art and Custom (Boston: Estes & Lauriat, 1874).

¹⁷ Philippe Descola, ‘Constructing Natures: Symbolic Ecology and Social Practice’, in Nature and Society: Anthropological Perspectives, ed. Philippe Descola and Gisli Pálsson, London: Routledge, 1996), 82–102 and Tim Ingold, The Perception of the Environment: Essays in Livelihood, Dwelling and Skill (London: Routledge, 2000).

¹⁸ Bruno Latour, ‘On Actor- Network Theory: A Few Clarifications’, Soziale Welt 47, no. 4 (1996): 369–381.

¹⁹ Latour, ‘On Actor-Network Theory’, 372.

²⁰ Graham Harvey, The Handbook of Contemporary Animism (Durham: Acumen, 2013).

²¹ Bill Sillar, ‘The Social Agency of Things? Animism and Materiality in the Andes’, Cambridge Archaeological Journal 19 (2009): 367–377.

²² Sillar, ‘The Social Agency of Things’, 376.

²³ Nurit Bird-David, ‘Animism Revisited: Personhood, Environment, and Relational Epistemology’, Current Anthropology 40 (1999): 67–90.

²⁴ Ingold, The Perception of the Environment.

²⁵ J McKim Malville, ‘Animism, Reciprocity and Entanglement’, Mediterranean Archaeology and Archaeometry 16, no. 4 (2016), 51–58.

²⁶ Malville, ‘Animism, Reciprocity and Entanglement’ and Jens Kreinath. ‘Tombs and Trees as Indexes of Agency in Saint Veneration Rituals: Bruno Latour’s Actor-Network Theory and the Hıdırellez Festival in Hatay, Turkey’, Journal of Ritual Studies 33, no. 1 (2019): 52–73. in different works.

²⁷ In Kurdish Alevism, the word Haq means both The God and truth, and refers to ‘an ultimate knowledge of the cosmos,’ as I will explain further below. Thus, ‘knowledge’ holds power over both human and non-human lives. It extends to both Zahir (the actual world) and Batın (the world of non-human entities). It is covered by a sır (the mysteries of the knowledge). See Gültekin, Kutsal Mekanın Yeniden Üretimi, 107–130.

²⁸ Gültekin, Kutsal Mekanın Yeniden Üretimi, 107–130.

²⁹ The fascinating cosmology and intriguing ritual patterns of followers of Raa Haqi have drawn the attention of missionaries, state authorities, travellers, intellectuals, politicians, and academics since the early 19^th century. See Markus Dressler, Writing Religion—The Making of Turkish Alevi Islam (New York: Oxford University Press, 2013), 31–78.

³⁰ For more detailed demographic data, see Ali Yaman and Aykan Erdemir, Alevism—Bektashism: A Brief Introduction (İstanbul: Horasan Yayıncılık, 2006).

³¹ The term Alevism was coined during the political processes of the early republican era (Dressler, Writing Religion) to include and mark diverse Alevi communities within the modern Turkish nation. The umbrella term Alevi is applied to a group of heterogeneous communities in Turkey that share certain social, ethnopolitical, or religious features. The notion of Alevism as a category continues to incite heated debate between those who consider it a ‘heterodox form of Islam,’ mostly related to Shi’ite discourses, and others who define it as an ‘independent religion,’ while some scholars view it more as a kind of lifestyle rather than as a religious belief system. In this regard, identifier facts that differentiate Alevism from Islam -or that create a connection between the two- seem to change according to actors’ political motivations. For example, those who consider Alevism apart from Islam usually emphasize the popular question, who is a Muslim? Because Alevis generally do not follow the ‘five pillars of Islam.’ On the other hand, on the discursive and ritualistic levels, most Alevis maintain the connection with the household of the prophet of Islam -particularly with Ali (the prophet’s paternal cousin) and his descendants-. This connection is still vital to sustaining religious practices and the authority structures within the community, even though it is being criticized today. Aside from other Alevi traditions, Kurdish Alevis also emphasize deific (jiare) characteristics of their hereditary sacred lineages rather than Islamic historical figures. See Gültekin, Kurdish Alevism.

³² For the first examples of such an approach, see Dilşa Deniz, Yol/Re; Deniz, ‘Kurdish Alevi Belief System’, 45–75 and Gültekin, Kurdish Alevism.

³³ For example, kewrayn (kirvelik in Turkish) and misayib (muhsahiplik in Turkish) are common fictional kinship institutions among Kurdish Alevis, see Deniz, ‘Kurdish Alevi Belief System’.

³⁴ According to the origin myth, Kurdish Alevis do not descend from Adam and Eve, but directly from Adam and a female angel, namely Naciye. Consequently, they do not share the common genealogy of other human beings. This produces a unique ontological and epistemological understanding of the world, based on the knowledge that it was created and is ruled by both humans and non-humans. Kurdish Alevis (or Alevis in general) also believe that the order of the cosmos is reflected in the human body, which is therefore also seen as Haq. Thus, each individual is a direct image of Haq, and non-human entities are integral parts of everyday life. See Erdal Gezik, ‘How Angel Gabriel Became Our Brother of the Hereafter On the Question of Ismaili Influence on Alevism’, British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies, 43 no. 1 (2016): 56–70.

³⁵ There are four socio-religious positions (talips, raybers, pirs and mürşids) in Kurdish Alevi society that symbolize ‘four doors and forty levels’ of a life cycle, all of which should ideally be passed through in the course of a lifetime. This path can only be followed with the help of a leading member (the pir, male religious authority/spiritual leader) of an Ocak (a sacred lineage) for talips. There is also a similar obligatory relation between Ocaks. Therefore, practically every individual regardless of their position in the social hierarchy is initially a talip and must have a rayber-pir-mürşid network in order to follow ‘the path.’ This is where the ikrar (the sacred oath) comes in. For more details, see Gültekin, Kurdish Alevism.

³⁶ Gültekin, Kurdish Alevism, 12–17.

³⁷ Deniz, ‘Kurdish Alevi Belief System’, 51.:

³⁸ Gültekin, Kurdish Alevism,12.

³⁹ Wild goats, snakes, eagles, fish, and partridges are especially important. Today, these animals have become prominent figures in new discourses that emphasize the mutuality of the sacred land and the religion. These discourses also express a sense of contemporary ecological awareness whereby protecting wildlife is seen as a religious act. See also Dilşa Deniz, ‘The Philosophy of Ecology and Réya Heqi: Religion, Nature and Femininity’, in Ecological Solidarity and the Kurdish Freedom Movement Thought, Practice, Challenges, and Opportunities, ed. Stephen E. Hunt (Maryland: Lexington Books, 2021), 243–261 and Gültekin, Kutsal Mekanın Yeniden Üretimi, 225–243.

⁴⁰ Gültekin, Kutsal Mekanın Yeniden Üretimi, 225–243.

⁴¹ In Kırmancki, Duzgı is a common name, while in Kurmanci, it is called Dizgun. Raa Haqi is also called Rêya Heqi in Kurmanci. Düzgün Baba (Father Düzgün) is widely used in Turkish too. Kemerê Duzgı (The rock of Duzgı) is also common name among Kırmancki speakers. Such naming refers to the place where he performed miracles, as well as to mention the sacredness of the mountain.

⁴² Gültekin, Kutsal Mekanın Yeniden Üretimi, 172–7.

⁴³ Ibid., 160–172.

⁴⁴ Deniz, Yol/Re, 233–41.

⁴⁵ A fundamental communal religious ceremony for all Alevi communities.

⁴⁶ The Cemevi in the direction of Nazımiye district (Image 3, at point 12) was opened in 2005, and the Cemevi in the direction of Kıl village (Image 3, at point 1) was opened in 2003. See Gültekin, Kutsal Mekanın Yeniden Üretimi, 218 and 249.

⁴⁸ As they have among other Alevi groups, Cemevis have become popular among Kurdish Alevis since they began migrating to the cities of Turkey and Western Europe. Cemevi is the name given to a place for worship as well as to denote the religio-political associations that have been established by Alevis since the 1990s in order to bring communities together to practise the most important Alevi rituals, the Cem ceremonies, in cities. See Gültekin, Kurdish Alevism, 18.

⁴⁹ Dilşa Deniz, ‘Dersim’de Su Kutsiyeti, Mızur/Munzur Nehri İlişkisi, Anlamı ve Kapsamı ile Baraj/HES Projeleri’ in Sudan Sebepler, Türkiye’de Neoliberal Su-Enerji Politikları ve Direnişler, ed. Cemil Aksu, Sinan Erensü ve Erdem Evren, (İstanbul: İletişim Yayınları, 2016), 177–197.

⁵⁰ Duzgı has several sisters, who are also young and unmarried. Duzgı mountain has three major peaks. One of them is named after his eldest sister Xaskar.

⁵¹ The most famous ones are known as Tarık. They are thin wooden sticks, and they are believed to be the Zahir forms of moro şia (the black snake) or moro sur (the red snake). They are regarded as relics from the Batın world. They cannot be owned; on the contrary, they may move location independently if dissatisfied with their keepers’ moral attitudes. See Erdal Gezik and Hüseyin Çakmak, Raa Haqi—Riya Haqi / Dersim Aleviliği İnanç Terimleri Sözlüğü (Ankara: Kalan Yayınları, 2010), 193.

⁵² In this sense, jiares are also subject to an ideological conflict. The AKP regime is trying to interfere with Alevi politics through its agenda by aiming to redefine Alevism close to Sunni Politic Islam as possible as it can be. However, Alevi associations also instrumentalize jiares -or the Cemevis built on popular jiares as in the case of Duzgı- to oppose AKP and to show how different the religious practises are from Islam. See Gültekin, Kurdish Alevism and Kutsal Mekanın Yeniden Üretimi, 177–184.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Einstein Stiftung Berlin [EGR-2021-634].