The Diminishing Agency of Urbanised Alevis Against the Rise of Political Islam in Turkey
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.35469/poligrafi.2021.281Keywords:
political Islam, AKP government, urbanised Alevis, agency, governmentalityAbstract
This paper critically examines the diminishing agency of the first-urbanised Alevi generation vis- à-vis the Justice and Development Party (AKP) and their sectarian agenda mediated by political Islam. The conceptual position is underpinned by Foucault’s concept of governmentality and theory of agency in broader cultural terms. These theoretical frameworks interweave to present a rich and complex set of snapshots that document the first-urbanised Alevi generation’s decreasing possibilities of action in the urban context. Accordingly, the empirical data that informs this piece has been collected by a series of qualitative and semi-structured interviews with the first-urbanised Alevi generation, children of those who migrated to urban areas in the 1960s and wittingly or unwittingly kept their identities undisclosed to varying degrees. Those interviewed come from a range of different professional backgrounds, with the only common point being that they have spent their childhoods and adult years in Istanbul, Turkey. Through a close engagement with the empirical material, this paper addresses the effects of the AKP’s Sunnification process centring around political Islam on the first generation urbanised Alevis and to what extent the systemic nature of this process attenuates or takes away their agency in the urban context. The account is focused around three key themes including daily life, institutional forms of discrimination and the workplace.
References
Arkilic, Ayca, and Ayse Ezgi Gurcan. “The Political Participation of Alevis: A Comparative Analysis of the Turkish Alevi Opening and the German Islam Conference.” Nationalities Papers 49, no. 5 (September 2021): 949–966, https://doi.org/10.1017/nps.2020.49.
Ayata, Ayşe. “The Emergence of Identity Politics in Turkey.” New Perspectives on Turkey 17 (1997): 59‒73. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0896634600002752.
Ayata, Bilgin, and Serra Hakyemez. “The Akp’s Engagement with Turkey’s Past Crimes: An Analysis of Pm Erdoğan’s ‘Dersim Apology’.” Dialectical anthropology 37, no. 1 (March 2013): 131‒143. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10624-013-9304-3.
Borovali, Murat, and Cemil Boyraz. “The Alevi Workshops: An Opening without an Outcome?” Turkish Studies 16, no. 2 (2015): 145‒160. https://doi.org/10.1080/14683849.2015.1043279.
Braun, Virginia, and Victoria Clarke. Successful Qualitative Research: A Practical Guide for Beginners. London: Sage, 2013.
Cusenza, Cristina. “Localist Cosmopolitanism: Alevism as a Rooted, Universal Discourse.” Journal of the Anthropological Society of Oxford IX, no. 3 (2017): 295–343. https://www.anthro.ox.ac.uk/sites/default/files/anthro/documents/media/jaso9_3_2017_295_343.pdf.
Dressler, Markus. “Religio-Secular Metamorphoses: The Re-Making of Turkish Alevism.” Journal of the American Academy of Religion 76, no. 2 (2008): 280‒311. https://www.jstor.org/stable/25484003.
Erman, Tahire, and Emrah Göker. “Alevi Politics in Contemporary Turkey.” Middle Eastern Studies 36, no. 4 (2000): 99‒118. https://www.jstor.org/stable/4284116.
Erman, Tahire. “Becoming ‘Urban’ or Remaining ‘Rural’: The Views of Turkish Rural-to-Urban Migrants on the ‘Integration’ Question.” International Journal of Middle East Studies 30, no. 4 (1998): 541–561. http://www.jstor.org/stable/164340.
Grossberg, Lawrence. »Identity and cultural studies: Is that all there is?« In Questions of cultural identity, edited by Stuart Hall and Paul Du Gay, 87–107. Sage Publications, Inc., 1996.
Hall, Stuart, and Paul Du Gay. Questions of Cultural Identity. Sage Publications. London: Sage, 1996.
Hanoglu, Hayal. “Alevis under the Shadow of the Turkish Islamic Ethos.” Kürd Araştırmaları Dergisi, 2020: 138‒154, https://kurdarastirmalari.com/uploads/3_dosya/hayal_hanioglu1.pdf.
Joseph, Jonathan. “The Limits of Governmentality: Social Theory and the International.” European Journal of International Relations 16, no. 2 (2010): 223‒246. https://doi.org/10.1177/1354066109346886.
Karakas, Cemal. Turkey: Islam and Laicism between the Interests of State, Politics, and Society. PRIF Reports No. 78. Frankfurt: Peace Research Institute, 2007. https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/71725021.pdf.
Karakaya-Stump, Ayfer, and Emrah Yildiz. “Alevizing Gezi.” Jadaliyya (March 26, 2014). https://everywheretaksim.net/jadaliyya-alevizing-gezi-ayfer-karakaya-stump.
Karakaya-Stump, Ayfer. “The AKP, Sectarianism, and the Alevis’ Struggle for Equal Rights in Turkey.” National Identities 20, no. 1 (2018): 53‒67. https://doi.org/10.1080/14608944.2016.1244935.
Kaya, Ayhan. “AKP’s Alevi Initiative.” In Europeanization and Tolerance in Turkey: The Myth of Toleration, 132-156. Identities and Modernities in Europe. London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137318190_5.
Kingsley, Patrick. “Turkey’s Alevis, a Muslim Minority, Fear a Policy of Denying Their Existence.” The New York Times, July 22, 2017. https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/22/world/europe/alevi-minority-turkey-recep-tayyip-erdogan.html.
Köse, Talha. “The AKP and the ‘Alevi Opening’: Understanding the Dynamics of the Rapprochement.” Insight Turkey 12, no. 2 (2010): 143‒164. https://www.jstor.org/stable/26331449.
“Mafia Boss Peker Warns against a Possible Attack on Alevis.” English Bianet. Accessed June 3, 2021. https://bianet.org/english/society/244964-mafia-boss-peker-warns-against-a-possible-attack-on-alevis.
Öktem, Kerem. “Being Muslim at the Margins: Alevis and the AKP.” Middle East Report, no. 246 (2008): 5‒7. https://doi.org/10.2307/25164829.
Orhan, Gözde. “Religious Freedom Governance or Institutionalization of a Heterodox Religion? Turkey’s Urban Policies with Respect to Alevi Population.” Peace Human Rights Governance 3, no. 2 (2019): 193‒214. https://doi.org/10.14658/pupj-phrg-2019-2-2.
Osterlund, Paul Benjamin. “Turkey’s Alevis ‘under the Shadow of Military Tanks’.” Alyazeera, May 1, 2015. https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2015/5/1/turkeys-alevis-under-the-shadow-of-military-tanks.
Paul, Amanda, and Demir Murat Seyrek. “Freedom of Religion in Turkey ‒ The Alevi Issue.” European Policy Centre (EPC) Commentary, January 24, 2014. https://www.epc.eu/en/Publications/Freedom-of-religion-in-Turkey~1c965c.
Sian, Katy. “Being Black in a White World: Understanding Racism in British Universities,” in Papeles del Centro de Estudios sobre la Identidad Colectiva, 2, no. 176 (2017): 1–26. https://doi.org/10.1387/pceic.17625.
Soner, Bayram Ali, and Şule Toktaş. “Alevis and Alevism in the Changing Context of Turkish Politics: The Justice and Development Party’s Alevi Opening.” Turkish Studies 12, no. 3 (2011): 419‒434. https://doi.org/10.1080/14683849.2011.604214.
Taş, Hakkı. “Can the Alevis Speak? The Politics of Representation in Early Writings on Alevism.” Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations 26, no. 3 (2015): 325‒338. https://doi.org/10.1080/09596410.2015.1045177.
Tekdemir, Omer. “Constructing a Social Space for Alevi Political Identity: Religion, Antagonism and Collective Passion.” National Identities 20, no. 1 (2018): 31‒51. https://doi.org/10.1080/14608944.2016.1247259.
Tol, Ulaş. “Urban Alevism and the Young Alevis’ Search for Identity.” In Istanbul Youth Mapping Series, edited by Greg Bennetts, 14‒36. Istanbul: PODEM and the Berghof Foundation, 2017. http://podem.org.tr/en/researches/urban-alevism-and-the-young-alevis-search-for-identity/.
Turkey from the Inside. “Divriği.” Accessed June 9, 2021. http://www.turkeyfromtheinside.com/who-was-who-in-turkey/a/42-places-to-go/279-dvr.html.
UK Government, Home Office. »Country Policy and Information Note Turkey: Alevis, Version 2.0.« Accessed June 25, 2021. https://www.justice.gov/eoir/page/file/1008326/download.
Uysal, Gonenc. “The Failed Coup in Turkey: Prolonged Conflict in the State Apparatus.” E-International Relations (September 21, 2016). https://www.e-ir.info/2016/09/21/the-failed-coup-in-turkey-prolonged-conflict-in-the-state-apparatus/.
Yilmaz, Ihsan, and Galib Bashirov. “The AKP after 15 Years: Emergence of Erdoganism in Turkey.” Third World Quarterly 39, no. 9 (2018): 1812‒1830. https://doi.org/10.1080/01436597.2018.1447371.
Yilmaz, Ihsan, and James Barry. “The Akp’s De-Securitization and Re-Securitization of a Minority Community: The Alevi Opening and Closing.” Turkish Studies 21, no. 2 (2020): 231‒253. https://doi.org/10.1080/14683849.2019.1601564.
Zirh, Besim Can. “Euro-Aievis: From Gastarbeiter to Transnational Community.” In The Making of World Society, edited by Remus Gabriel Anghel, Eva Gerharz, Gilberto Rescher, and Monika Salzbrunn, 103‒132. Bielefeld: Transcript Verlag, 2015. https://doi.org/10.14361/9783839408353-004.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Open Access Policy and Copyright
This journal provides immediate open access to its content on the principle that making research freely available to the public supports a greater global exchange of knowledge. Users are allowed to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of the articles, or use them for any other lawful purpose, without asking prior permission from the publisher or the author.
Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:
- Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution license (CC BY) that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work’s authorship and initial publication in this journal.
- Authors grant the publisher commercial rights to produce hardcopy volumes of the journal for sale to libraries and individuals.
- Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal’s published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
