Nevşehir Hacı Bektaş Veli University Faculty of Letters Lecturer Prof. Dr. Bayram Durbilmez said that the veteran saints who adopted the Bektashi path played an important role in the Turkification of the Balkans and the spread of Islam.
Prof. Dr. Durbilmez, “Bektashism from Edirne to Balkan Countries” at the opening session of the Alevism and Bektashism Symposium in the Balkans, organized at the Balkan Congress Center by Edirne Governorship, Trakya University, Ministry of Culture and Tourism Alevi-Bektashi Culture and Cemevi Presidency and Balkan Cities Cooperation Edirne Platform. He made a presentation on the subject.
Durbilmez stated that Edirne is an important city in terms of Bektashism and Turkish history in the Balkans.
Expressing that Edirne, Turkey’s gateway to the Balkans, is a “bridge of culture and hearts”, Durbilmez said, “Turkish customs, traditions, customs, beliefs and practices extending from Turkestan to Khorasan, from Khorasan to Anatolia, extend from Anatolia to Edirne.” “It reached from Edirne to the Balkans and went into the interior of Europe.” he said.
Durbilmez said that Turkish culture is dominant in a wide geography from Turkestan to the Balkans.
Stating that veteran saints who adopted the Bektashism path went to the Balkans, Durbilmez explained that the hearts of these communities were first won with the relations established with the Balkan communities.
Stating that he carried out sociocultural studies with the Bektashi lodges founded by the veteran saints, Durbilmez said:
“The carriers of the religion and Sufi culture that constitute the cultural identity in such a wide Turkish cultural geography, and those who made Anatolia and the Balkans the homeland of Turks and Muslims, are the veteran saints and Turkish dervishes. In their memories, the Turks adapted and integrated the oral cultures they brought from Turkestan to the new geography they settled in.” They made geography a homeland. Making geography a homeland is not possible only by fighting.
Making geography a homeland means, first of all, integrating geography with culture and verbal memory. Therefore, if today we are talking about a common culture in a wide geography stretching from Turkestan to Khorasan, from Khorasan to Edirne, from Edirne to the Balkans, it was created by Turkish culture putting its stamp on this geography. “No matter which Turkish homeland you go to today, there is either the tomb or the place of a saint or elder or other traces related to him.”
Durbilmez emphasized that Bektashi saints acted with feelings of friendship and brotherhood, lived together with other Balkan communities and ensured the adoption of Turkish culture in the region.
