Ehli Beyt Scholars Association
The Ehli Beyt Scholars Association (Turkish: Ehlibeyt Alimleri Derneği, abbr. Ehla-Der) is the main Turkish Jaafari Shia organization founded on 31 May 2011 in Istanbul.[1] Its present chairman is Kadir Akaras.[2]
The Twelver Shia community represents 3% of the Muslim population in Turkey, more than three million members, most of whom are ethnic Azeris who live in the eastern provinces neighbouring to Azerbaijan, more particularly in the Iğdır and Kars provinces, and in Istanbul in neighbourhoods close to the airport (Halkalı, Bakırkoÿ) and on the Asian side to the East of Kadiköy (Kayışdağı).[3] They have 70 mosques in Istanbul and some 300 throughout the country and receive no state funding for their mosques and imams as the Presidency of Religious Affairs (Diyanet) is exclusively Sunni.[4]
References[edit]
- ^ Letter from the Ehli Beyt Scholars Association Archived 2014-03-27 at the Wayback Machine, 12 September 2012
- ^ Pinar Tremblay, "Could Iran-Saudi conflict provide Turkey 'graceful exit' from Syria?", Al-Monitor, 11 January 2016
- ^ (in French) Jean-Paul Burdy, "Les chiites ja’faris de Turquie, entre politique intérieure et diplomatie régionale", Observatoire de la vie politique turque, 22 August 2011
- ^ Pinar Tremblay, "Turkish Shiites fear growing hate crimes", Al-Monitor, 11 July 2014