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IS THE ALEVI ISSUE "ONLY" A SECT ISSUE?
Daily Sabah, Turkey
Nov 4 2014
Filiz Gunduz*
Turkey has a diversified society that includes Turks, Kurds,
Caucasians, Balkans, non-Muslim Armenians, Greeks and Jews. However,
the population of these ethnic and religious groups has been
dramatically decreasing since the beginning of the nationalist and
secularist policies of Kemalism implementing massacres and pogroms
during World War I. As a result, the Muslim community of modern Turkey
has been isolated from its Christian and Jewish neighbors and collapsed
into its own internal antagonisms such as the one between Alevi and
Sunni members. The Alevi community constitutes the vast majority of
the Shia sect in Turkey.
For Turkey, the Alevi issue, which extends throughout the whole of
Middle Eastern political geography, is not only a domestic issue
but also a foreign policy matter. This issue is one of the major
problems that the Turkish government has been facing. The Alevi
community imposed itself on the present political agenda of Turkey
after the Gezi Park protests in 2013 through its mass involvement
in the incidents. Although the Justice and Development Party (AK
Party) government bridged significant steps regarding the Alevi issue
through several meetings such as the "Alevi Opening," the Kemalist
elites including academics, journalists, writers and nongovernmental
organization representatives claimed that the government had no real
agenda in order to solve the Alevi community's problems.
In fact, the AK Party is the first government to officially apologize
for the Dersim massacre where Kurdish Alevis were brutally killed
by the state. Madımak Hotel was turned into a science and culture
center by this AK Party government where 35 people were killed in 1993.
NevÅ~_ehir University was renamed as "HacıbektaÅ~_" (the name of a
famous Alevi mystic). President Recep Tayyip Erdogan joined several
meetings with Alevi community representatives in order to discuss the
problems of Alevis. In spite of their efforts, Erdogan and the AK Party
government are considered the worst rulers of the Republic. They are
accused of suppressing the Alevi identity and of preventing Alevis
from practicing their beliefs. But is that really so?
If there is an ongoing conflict among communities in a nation-state,
all representatives of these communities should meet and look for a
peace process. During these processes, Alevi delegates and government
representatives may sometimes disagree on complicated matters such
as determining the political definition of the Alevi identity -
is it a sect, religion or a cult?
Nevertheless, the Alevi issue has been used as an ideological
weapon against the AK Party government by leftists, Kemalists and
nationalists throughout the debates. Opponents insistently ignored
the real problems that Alevi individuals face in daily life such
as discrimination and/or recognition problems. If Sunni and Alevi
communities think that the problem has emerged from differences in
their beliefs, they can proceed to follow with a scholarly discussion.
However, the conflict is less likely about religious issues although
it seems that way. In a crisis such as the Gezi Park protests, the
Alevi community can be mobilized constantly with the motivation of
pioneers of the "revolution" against Islamists (Sunnis).
I'd like to argue why Alevis are not positioned as opponents to
"Islamists" but actually to Sunni people supporting the AK Party for
the last 12 years. While proceeding with this point I'd like to avoid
the "Alevis are Kemalists, they were suppressed by Kemalist policies
mostly but they still stand for the CHP" argument as much as possible.
In this scenario Alevis are set to present a progressive,
revolutionist, secular and/or Kemalist position contrary to
conservative Islamists who represent the backward, regressive,
religious, dark and corrupted side of Turkish society. It may be
quiet gripping to foreign readers that an identity which takes its
base from a sect of a religion can be regarded as a secular entity
comparing another community they belong to a different sect. This
could be a refreshing place for a Kemalism 101 course to start.
Kemalist ideology, which hoped to create a Turkish and culturally Sunni
nation state by burying the Ottoman era, wouldn't miss the chance to
have Alevis as an ally, for sure. However, pre-modern Alevis still
wouldn't quiet fit Kemalism that set the Turkish symbolic order.
In Kemalist symbolic order, the founder of the Republic Mustafa Kemal
Ataturk referred to enlightenment, virtue, a bright future, logos,
the truth and so forth all the time. In this way, it was the "other"
that was cast into an irrational, reactionary and immoral position
unconditionally. No need to say that Kurds, Alevis and non-Muslims
constitute the other in the Turkish symbolic order however, in the
Kemalist social order there are others that happen to be more other
than the other. The conservative Muslim other was a concrete other
and for that matter Kemalism could pick any marginalized other such
as Alevis to marginalize another other. In that sense Alevis became
the apparatus to legitimize secular and Jacobin ideology and hence
blocking the possibility of an open environment for discussion.
Rather than resolving sect issues by centering only upon the success
of an ideological agenda such as the secular-Islamist dichotomy,
also excluding Alevis from the debate sphere and disallowing them
from participating in subject of discussion is incorrect. There is
a space needed where Alevis can state their demands as equal citizens.
Non-Alevi Kemalists and leftist actors should step aside a little
and let Alevis be the owner of their matter.
* Research Assistant and Ph.D. candidate at Marmara University
http://www.dailysabah.com/opinion/2014/11/04/is-the-alevi-issue-only-a-sect-issue
Daily Sabah, Turkey
Nov 4 2014
Filiz Gunduz*
Turkey has a diversified society that includes Turks, Kurds,
Caucasians, Balkans, non-Muslim Armenians, Greeks and Jews. However,
the population of these ethnic and religious groups has been
dramatically decreasing since the beginning of the nationalist and
secularist policies of Kemalism implementing massacres and pogroms
during World War I. As a result, the Muslim community of modern Turkey
has been isolated from its Christian and Jewish neighbors and collapsed
into its own internal antagonisms such as the one between Alevi and
Sunni members. The Alevi community constitutes the vast majority of
the Shia sect in Turkey.
For Turkey, the Alevi issue, which extends throughout the whole of
Middle Eastern political geography, is not only a domestic issue
but also a foreign policy matter. This issue is one of the major
problems that the Turkish government has been facing. The Alevi
community imposed itself on the present political agenda of Turkey
after the Gezi Park protests in 2013 through its mass involvement
in the incidents. Although the Justice and Development Party (AK
Party) government bridged significant steps regarding the Alevi issue
through several meetings such as the "Alevi Opening," the Kemalist
elites including academics, journalists, writers and nongovernmental
organization representatives claimed that the government had no real
agenda in order to solve the Alevi community's problems.
In fact, the AK Party is the first government to officially apologize
for the Dersim massacre where Kurdish Alevis were brutally killed
by the state. Madımak Hotel was turned into a science and culture
center by this AK Party government where 35 people were killed in 1993.
NevÅ~_ehir University was renamed as "HacıbektaÅ~_" (the name of a
famous Alevi mystic). President Recep Tayyip Erdogan joined several
meetings with Alevi community representatives in order to discuss the
problems of Alevis. In spite of their efforts, Erdogan and the AK Party
government are considered the worst rulers of the Republic. They are
accused of suppressing the Alevi identity and of preventing Alevis
from practicing their beliefs. But is that really so?
If there is an ongoing conflict among communities in a nation-state,
all representatives of these communities should meet and look for a
peace process. During these processes, Alevi delegates and government
representatives may sometimes disagree on complicated matters such
as determining the political definition of the Alevi identity -
is it a sect, religion or a cult?
Nevertheless, the Alevi issue has been used as an ideological
weapon against the AK Party government by leftists, Kemalists and
nationalists throughout the debates. Opponents insistently ignored
the real problems that Alevi individuals face in daily life such
as discrimination and/or recognition problems. If Sunni and Alevi
communities think that the problem has emerged from differences in
their beliefs, they can proceed to follow with a scholarly discussion.
However, the conflict is less likely about religious issues although
it seems that way. In a crisis such as the Gezi Park protests, the
Alevi community can be mobilized constantly with the motivation of
pioneers of the "revolution" against Islamists (Sunnis).
I'd like to argue why Alevis are not positioned as opponents to
"Islamists" but actually to Sunni people supporting the AK Party for
the last 12 years. While proceeding with this point I'd like to avoid
the "Alevis are Kemalists, they were suppressed by Kemalist policies
mostly but they still stand for the CHP" argument as much as possible.
In this scenario Alevis are set to present a progressive,
revolutionist, secular and/or Kemalist position contrary to
conservative Islamists who represent the backward, regressive,
religious, dark and corrupted side of Turkish society. It may be
quiet gripping to foreign readers that an identity which takes its
base from a sect of a religion can be regarded as a secular entity
comparing another community they belong to a different sect. This
could be a refreshing place for a Kemalism 101 course to start.
Kemalist ideology, which hoped to create a Turkish and culturally Sunni
nation state by burying the Ottoman era, wouldn't miss the chance to
have Alevis as an ally, for sure. However, pre-modern Alevis still
wouldn't quiet fit Kemalism that set the Turkish symbolic order.
In Kemalist symbolic order, the founder of the Republic Mustafa Kemal
Ataturk referred to enlightenment, virtue, a bright future, logos,
the truth and so forth all the time. In this way, it was the "other"
that was cast into an irrational, reactionary and immoral position
unconditionally. No need to say that Kurds, Alevis and non-Muslims
constitute the other in the Turkish symbolic order however, in the
Kemalist social order there are others that happen to be more other
than the other. The conservative Muslim other was a concrete other
and for that matter Kemalism could pick any marginalized other such
as Alevis to marginalize another other. In that sense Alevis became
the apparatus to legitimize secular and Jacobin ideology and hence
blocking the possibility of an open environment for discussion.
Rather than resolving sect issues by centering only upon the success
of an ideological agenda such as the secular-Islamist dichotomy,
also excluding Alevis from the debate sphere and disallowing them
from participating in subject of discussion is incorrect. There is
a space needed where Alevis can state their demands as equal citizens.
Non-Alevi Kemalists and leftist actors should step aside a little
and let Alevis be the owner of their matter.
* Research Assistant and Ph.D. candidate at Marmara University
http://www.dailysabah.com/opinion/2014/11/04/is-the-alevi-issue-only-a-sect-issue