The Transformation of the Alevi Collective Identity

Abstract

This article examines the transformation of the Alevi identity—an important religious and/or cultural minority in Turkey—since the 1980s. It suggests a shift in the Alevi identity from repression to expression which parallels the Turkish state's shifting relationship with minorities from the early moment of nation-state formation to its efforts to enter the EU. The changing nature of the struggle between the Alevi community and the Turkish state and the implications of this change for the conceptualization of the Alevi collective identity are the major concerns of this article. The articulation of a social movement to the emerging postmodern condition based on identity politics, and the terms and the limits of expression of a collective identity in a global multicultural environment are examined through the transformation of the Alevi identity. This article suggests that Alevism, appearing as a potentially counter-hegemonic social movement due to the difference-repressive nature of the Turkish state, finds a space for expression in the dominant public sphere as a result of the changing global environment and the attitude of the Turkish state towards difference. At the same time, though, it loses its counterhegemonic character, limits its difference and becomes accommodated to the global discourse of multiculturalism.