Abstract:

Alevism is political concept beyond its ancient heritage. The question, which is whether Alevism is a cultural phenomenon or the subject of identity, should be clarified definitively before discussing Alevism. Particularly in Turkey, it seems that Alevism has gained unique aspect with the foundation of modern Turkish Republic. As distinct from previous practices in history, Alevism reappeared as a political identity by favour of the policies of new Turkish Republic. Alevi people, which is professed to be exposed to culturally oppression called Kızılbaş during Ottoman Empire, became agent establishing an alliance with the elites of new Turkish Republic. Nevertheless, the political discrimination against Alevi people would be continued in the following decades. According to Alevis’ thesis, especially under the governance of right-winded political parties in Turkey, Alevi people complains to be seen as secondary citizens. Briefly, the marginalization process of Alevi people causes to emerge specifically Alevism question in the context of identity. Ultimately, the process of Alevi opening as the part of democratization initiatives emerged with the will of Justice and Development Party in 2008 and the series of workshops for the problems of Alevi citizens were arranged for the first time in 2009, which continued during two years. The attempt of JDP is still controversial with the achievements and disappointments. It is seen that Alevi opening begun with high hopes was concluded with the disappointment in the aspect of Alevis. On the other hand, JDP officials and intellectually supporters arrived in the opinion that Alevi people are so demanding and they lost the solving motivation to the Alevism question. Furthermore, there have been structural limitations in front of the solution of Alevism problem. First, democratization policy of JDP belonged to a particular period. Hence, Alevi opening ended de facto by itself although there is no exact conclusion of Alevi opening. Second, Alevi communities’ polymorphous structure obstructed to find out a definitive consensus between Sunni and Alevi people. Last structural obstacle is some prejudices and settled opinions against Alevis are quite powerful in conservative Sunni people. Because all of these structural difficulties, JDP’s Alevi opening attempt led Alevism issue becomes more chronic and complicated, which it makes difficult to final solution in the future.

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