Chepni  Alevis living in Dîlok are worried that their culture is disappearing due to migration. Although Chepni Alevis have organised various events to prevent migration and bring back the young people who left in order to keep their culture alive, they have not yet achieved their goal.

 

Köseler and Miseri (Kuzuyatağı) are two rural neighbourhoods of Dîlok (Antep) with Chepni people. One is a neighbourhood of Belqîs (Nizip) and the other of Çînçîn (Yavuzeli). Both neighbourhoods struggle to keep their culture alive, to adhere to their beliefs and social life. These villages, which once lived together around Kela Zerrîn (Rum Kale), have dispersed to the mountainous regions whose borders include the districts of Çînçîn, Belqîs and Ereban. The inhabitants of the neighbourhood, who have not lost their beliefs over the centuries and have been resistant to keeping their culture alive, faced oppression and persecution due to their religious identity and ideology, first during the establishment of the republic and then during the coup d'état. Alevi citizens, who were prevented from organising themselves by the Law on Dervish Lodges and Zawiyahs passed during the founding years of the Republic, told how they were subjected to practices that prevented them from even worshipping during the coup d'état.

 

THEY EXPERIENCED MANY DIFFICULTIES

 

They stated that during the foundation period of the Republic, they had to perform their cem worship in secret and that they were targeted ideologically, especially after the coup d'état. Stating that in addition to the pressures they were subjected to in the past, the young people of the neighbourhood are migrating due to the increasing difficulties in making a living today, the people of the neighbourhood said that they have resorted to many ways in order not to forget their beliefs and culture.

 

In the neighbourhoods where the culture of working together in a cooperative manner is maintained, citizens bake their bread together, and they always meet their weddings, funerals, prayers and festivals together. The people of the neighbourhood, who are especially trying to attract their neighbours and their children who are in the city or abroad to the village, noted that they resorted to many ways to keep the young people in the village and that they aim to teach them history, their own culture and beliefs.

 

'YOUTH BRANCHES AND TREE COMMITTEE ESTABLISHED'

 

Formerly Miseri and now Kuzuyatağı, most of the population of the neighbourhood in the Çînçîn district of Dîlok migrated to Antalya after 12 September. Kuzuyatağı Village Youth Branch was established in 2001 by the people of the neighbourhood in order to ensure that the citizens who came to the neighbourhood from Antalya get to know their culture and maintain their beliefs in the neighbourhood. The young people of the village, who come together under this umbrella, work on publishing magazines, while also coming together in the village square to engage in cultural activities such as reading books and debates. Again with the efforts of the people of the neighbourhood, the Afforestation Committee was established in 2012. With this committee, memorial forests were created in the village and the village was afforested. So far, 3 memorial forests have been created in the village. One of them is dedicated to Bilgesu Gürbüz, who died in a traffic accident at an early age.

 

However, with the deepening of the economic crisis, the youth could not hold on in the neighbourhood and both the youth branches and the committee gradually weakened and had to terminate their activities.

 

Fatma Türkkan (81) lives in Miseri Neighbourhood and she is one of the residents of the neighbourhood who has never left her village since the day she opened her eyes. Fatma Türkkan lives with her son and his family and stated that their village, whose first name was Miseri, then Gözü Büyük and finally Kuzuyatağı, lives in solidarity with other neighbouring villages. Fatma Türkkan said, "We know each other well with the neighbouring villages. We often come together to eat and drink tea. They come to our gardens, they come to our houses."

 

Fatma Türkkan said that in the past they used to plant wheat and barley, and today they plant pistachios in their fields with vineyards, and that the only source of livelihood of almost the whole neighbourhood is pistachios and sometimes animal husbandry. However, Fatma Türkkan pointed out that young people migrate due to livelihood problems at this point and said, "Pistachio fields are no longer enough. Young people are now leaving here to find other jobs and work. Everything is expensive now. The government has made everything expensive. Can a loaf of bread cost 10 liras? Young people are forced to leave like this. Our organisation is broken."

 

THE ONLY CHEPNI VILLAGE OF BELQÎS

 

In Köseler, the only Chepni neighbourhood among the 73 neighbourhoods of Belqîs, citizens are struggling both to keep their culture alive and to carry their beliefs into the future. The people of the neighbourhood are preparing to exhibit the old agricultural and household tools they have collected from their own village and neighbouring villages in the Köseler Cemevi, which they built themselves after coming together with a cooperative in 1960. The inhabitants of the neighbourhood are planning to tell future generations about animal husbandry, which was once the main source of livelihood of their neighbourhood, which is known to be 200 years old, and their culture and history shaped by it. Among the items they plan to exhibit are agricultural tools as well as household items with local motifs. For the exhibition, which is a common idea of the people of the neighbourhood, everyone continues to bring old, historical items from their homes to the cemevi. On the other hand, citizens from neighbouring neighbourhoods and even neighbouring cities donated antique and old items from their homes to the exhibition in order to support the exhibition.

Among the items waiting to be exhibited in the museum are a hair comb, a vice for extracting olive oil and grape juice, a frame that was once used as a harvester-driver, a gem board used in threshing, a floor basket, a wooden churn, chests, windows, shutters, kitchen cabinets, and milk transport bins.

 

Yeter Çelik (92), one of the oldest people in the neighbourhood, pointed out that young people are migrating from their neighbourhood day by day and said, "I want peace. I want goodness. It is a pity for our young people."

 

Güllü Çelik (67) stated that they used to do everything together with the people of the neighbourhood and she added, "We used to do everything together then. We had no separation. We used to have cattle. We used to lift the threshing floor, we used to work with a plough. Now none of them are left. We cannot afford to eat. There is no hay. Our young people have always gone to one side. We don't have young people around here anymore. But we still continue to do the work by imece. The culture that remains in the village continues."

 

MA / Ceylan Şahinli