A local religious group in Elazığ: A research on the Halit Çakmak community

There is insufficient information about the impacts on the lives of members of Halit Çakmak and his Community. This lack of information makes it difficult to understand the individual and societal consequences of the beliefs and practices of the community's members. This research aims to fill this gap by revealing the effects of the community on individuals. The primary goal of this research is to understand the impacts of Halit Çakmak and his Community, a local religious group in Elazığ, on the lives of individuals through interviews conducted with its members. The study aims to examine how the community shapes the beliefs, daily practices, and social relationships of its members. The methodology of this study is qualitative, with a cultural (ethnographic) analysis design. A semi-structured interview technique was used as the data collection tool. The study group consists of 18 male community members reached through the snowball sampling method. The collected data were analyzed using content analysis. The data obtained from the research were interpreted by relating them to each other. As a result of the interviews and research, it was interpreted that the formation of the community was a process, and a community spontaneously formed around Halit Çakmak because he was loved and respected, without any desire to form a community. It was found that Halit Çakmak, as a charismatic leader, influenced the city he lived in with his views and guidance. It was observed that the place referred to as the dervish lodge, which was the common meeting point until his death, was actively used, and after his death, due to disruptions in the community's integrity, it was rarely used and gathered fewer people, typically once a week or on religious days and nights.