Woman sues husband for becoming ‘alien cult’ member

Özge Eğrikar – ISTANBUL

A woman in Istanbul has opened a divorce lawsuit against her husband, accusing him of being a member of an “alien cult” and not fulfilling his duties as a husband.

According to the lawsuit, Bağdat Polat and Metin Polat tied the knot in 2003 and became parents. However, the marriage began to break down after Metin Polat joined the “World Brotherhood Union Mevlana Supreme Foundation,” led by a “female sheikh” who is believed “to have been healed by three aliens.”

“He joined them five years ago. Then things changed. Once, he told me that ‘I’d rather die than leave the foundation.’ He used psychological and physical violence against me,” Bağdat Polat said in the lawsuit petition, demanding 2 million Turkish Liras ($222,000) as compensation and monthly alimony of 13,000 liras ($1,440).

The woman alleged that her husband started believing that “the foundation’s ‘Knowledge Book’ was superior to the Koran and that there were cosmic energies existing out of the earth.”

“He attends foundation meetings three times a week, each lasting five hours. I don’t know what he is doing at that while. I am a mother, and I am worried for my children,” the woman noted in the petition.

According to data publicly announced at the website of the Istanbul-based foundation, which is active in 33 countries, the leader is 98-year-old Bülent Çorak, also known as the “female sheikh.”

Çorak started “her research” in 1966 and established the foundation in 1993. She published the “Knowledge Book” first in 1996 and sells the book as fascicules to foundation members.

Çorak is believed to be “saved by three aliens wearing diving suits” while she was sick. “I come back to life after all my deaths,” she said, according to early reports.

“My wife’s allegations are groundless,” Metin Polat said in a written statement, defending himself that he never used violence against her.

Saying that the foundation is legal and teaching love to people, the husband said, “My wife has taken some of my words that I said as a joke for real.”

He also asked not to pay the compensation and the alimony as he was not earning much money anymore.

The foundation was once on the country’s agenda when a Turkish man living in London had committed suicide in 2018 by jumping into the River Thames. His family found out that the man was sending money to the foundation regularly and committed suicide to “incarnate again,” as “the death by water is not a real death.”

Çorak also sees herself as “immortal” as she is “incarnating again and again.” Due to the rules, members of the foundation cannot get surgeries as “narcosis kills the energy.” Members who see themselves as “ancient priests and nuns” can marry each other with a ceremony named “Mevlana wedding.”

Mevlana Jalal ad-Din Rumi was a 13th-century Islamic scholar and theologian. His well-known work, Masnavi, composed in the Central Anatolian province of Konya, is considered one of the greatest poems of the Persian language.