Word: sunni
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...quantities of weapons. The latest outbreak apparently began over the appropriation by the army garrison in Sanandaj of a large portion of the city's flour supply, as well as the bulk of the town's bread. Feelings among the city's population, which is mostly Sunni Muslim, were already running high because the local revolutionary courts were dominated by Shi'ites loyal to Khomeini. Kurdish guerrillas took positions in alleyways and on rooftops and stormed the army barracks. In response, the government forces strafed sections of the city from Cobra gunships...
...year. There are signs that the terrorists will now turn to selective assassination of moderate targets like Abdi Ipekçi, the influential editor of Istanbul's daily Milliyet, whose unsolved murder early this month shocked the country. At the same time, sectarian clashes have broken out between Sunni Muslims, who tend to be right-wingers, and Shi'ite Muslims, who tend toward the left. Last December at Maras in central Turkey, the Sunnis went on a rampage. In retaliation for a street clash, they killed more than 100 Shi'ites and burned hundreds of others...
Another important difference between Iran and Saudi Arabia is that Saudi rulers maintain tight links with the country's religious leaders. Since the early 19th century the House of Saud has had close contacts with the puritanical Wahhabi sect of Sunni Muslims who dominate the country's religious life. Opinions of the ulema, the leading religious authorities, are sought on major issues. Their power was demonstrated last year when they successfully demanded the razing of an entire modern city that had been built for pilgrims near Mecca on the sacred Hill of Arafat. The ulema ordered it destroyed...
...Turkey's Shi'ite Muslim minority (known locally as Alevis), which comprises 25% of the country's 41 million people. The Alevis are regarded as left-leaning and generally support Ecevit's Republican People's Party. The other is the country's Sunni Muslim majority (72%), who consider the Shi'ites to be heretics. Extremists have exploited the traditional enmity, inciting violence where sectarian tension is high. Over the past year, there have been nearly 800 deaths, excluding the Maraş, toll...
...Sunni-Alevi split has been worsened by the left-right division of Turkish politics. In order to maintain his parliamentary majority, Ecevit has had to deal cautiously with extremist sentiment while carrying out a left-of-center program. Although the Premier was successful in ending the 3½-year-long U.S. arms embargo against Turkey, lifted last August, he also made some friendly overtures to the U.S.S.R. The gestures toward the Soviets have exacerbated feelings among extremist Ecevit opponents. One slogan shouted by Sunnis last week: COMMUNISTS TO MOSCOW...