Dancing to express their piety, the young women and men in a solemn circle are part of a Turkish religious community whose members say they are fighting assimilation by the government.
Turkey's largest religious minority, some 15 to 25 million people across the country share the Alevi faith. It has roots in Islam but is steeped in shamanist tradition, and has never been recognized by the Turkish state.
The status of Alevis is central to European Union concerns about freedom of religion in Turkey as it weighs up Ankara's membership bid.
A court case - one of 2,000 or so - opened by minority representatives against the government has become a rallying cry for recognition, and put pressure on the ruling AK Party to increase religious freedoms in Turkey, where most of the population of around 71 million practice Orthodox Sunni Islam.
The cases centre on compulsory school religion classes, which Alevis say impose practices alien to their traditions. Despite court victories for the Alevis, the government has taken them to appeal citing its own limited power.
"We've come to a point where one cannot escape the fact that freedom of religion is limited in Turkey, for Alevis and other religious minorities, regardless of the democratic claims made by the ruling party," said Ali Yaman, professor of social anthropology at Abant Izzet Baysal University in Bolu.
Turkey's ruling AK Party, which has roots in political Islam, has publicly defended the rights of Turkey's pious Muslims in officially secular Turkey.
Alevis do not attend mosques but gather every Thursday in Cem houses, houses of prayer, where worshippers - men and women together - listen to music on the saz, a kind of long-necked lute, and dance to experience union with god.
The women wear red headdresses, a vestige of Anatolian fire worship, and Alevism stresses tolerance and respect for all and equality between the sexes.
Alevis are also associated by many with Shi'te Islam because of their veneration for Ali, Mohammad's cousin and son-in-law, who Shi'ites believe was Mohammad's rightful heir.
COURT VICTORY
A court victory by Alevi mother Hatice Kose has prompted public questions over the government's commitment to minority religious rights.
In 2004 Kose sparked a long legal battle when she tried to exempt her son from mandatory religious classes in elementary school: these include lessons on praying in a mosque as well fasting during the holy month of Ramadan and the obligatory pilgrimage to Mecca.
