After decades of prohibition, Mevlana ceremonies of whirling dervishes attract renewed interest as forms of sacral music, both in formal and popular genres. This trend runs parallel to an increasing concern for cultural, ethnic and religious identities, where the rising tide of religious revivalism sets the tone.

In the wake of demands by the Turkish Alevi for due recognition, there has been a rising interest in Alevi folklore and religious practices, and in what this branch of Islamic heterodoxy represents in terms of old and new identities.