The Alevi community in Turkey after 1980: an evaluation of political group boundaries in the context of ethnicity theories

Download

index.pdf

Date

2006

Author

İrat, Ali Murat

Metadata

Show full item record

Item Usage Stats

209
views

73
downloads

The present thesis intends to determine how the ethno-religious Alevi communities in Turkey survive and what are the main sources and factors helping them to sustain their group borders, especially as from the mid-1980s when these communities had started to reveal their identity clearly. It is important to state that the Kemalist regime was challenged by an obligatory change process on both economic and political grounds after the 1980 military coup in Turkey. Because of the rising of political Islam and the Kurdish ethno-nationalist movement, the modernist Kemalist regime and the Jacobin laicism have been subjected to criticism. In this tense period, one of the most important legitimation tools used by the state was the Alevi population, known by its dominant secular, modernist and Kemalist identity. For this reason, it can be proposed that in this era the occurrence of the Alevi identity’s revelation might have been supported or guarded by the Kemalist regime or state institutions. But another claim for the Alevi awakening is that the Alevi population had tried to define their identity against and/or parallel to the rising of Kurdish nationalism and the political Islamic movement. In sum, in this thesis I intend to clarify how the Alevi community constructs and/or protects its ethno-religious borders in these circumstances according to ethnicity theories.

Subject Keywords

General Social Sciences.

URI

http://etd.lib.metu.edu.tr/upload/3/12607184/index.pdf
https://hdl.handle.net/11511/15940

Collections

Graduate School of Social Sciences, Thesis

Suggestions

OpenMETU
Core

The role of secularization within the Turkish nation-state building process Sarı, Özgür; Okyayuz, Mehmet; Department of Political Science and Public Administration (2004) The objective of this study is to analyze the role of secularization within the Turkish nation-state building process between the late 19th and the early 20th century; hereby an emphasis will also be on the relations between the state and religion. This study will consider the Religious Affairs Directory as the key institutional actor in this process. This institutional reflection of secularization will be studied as an interesting case of state controlled social change on and over religion in society. The ...
The Kurdish political mobilization in the 1960s: the case of "the eastern meetings" Gündoğan, Azat Zana; Yeğen, Mesut; Department of Political Science and Public Administration (2005) This thesis examines the Kurdish political mobilization in the 1960s through focusing on the case of the Eastern Meetings. These meetings were organized by the Easterners group of the Turkish Workers Party in the various provinces in the autumn 1967 in the East and Southeast Anatolia with the aim of voicing the demands, claims and the grievances of these regions and the Kurdish population. Using the theoretical framework and the analytical tools presented by the social movements and collective action theory...
Mobilizing the Kurds in Turkey : Newroz as a myth Aydın, Delal; Yeğen, Mesut; Department of Political Science and Public Administration (2005) This thesis analyses the role of Newroz in the process of mobilization of the Kurds with the claim of separate identity in Turkey. It is claimed that Newroz is utilized as an ideological tool in order to construct/create Kurdish cultural or national unity. This function of Newroz is examined through two theoretical perspectives which are related to each other. On the one hand, Newroz is taken as a myth which has been used in the construction of Kurdish national identity. On the other hand, Newroz is conside...
The conception of development in the Turkish left in the 1960s : the case of TİP Şimşek, Gökçe Heval; Yalman, Osman Galip; Department of Political Science and Public Administration (2004) The object of this study is to elaborate the question of development, which was an issue of major concern in the Turkish left in the 1960's with reference to the views of TIP. It is seen that TIP's conception of the issue was articulated through an understanding of 'developmentalist socialism', which was a reflection of the intrnational approaches to the question of development during the period. It is argued in the study that the placing of the evaluation within a historical context is crucial in order to ...
The role of the organization for security and co-operation in Europe (OSCE) in the transdniestr conflict and the Russian factor Karaaslan, Hakan; Tanrısever, Oktay Fırat; Department of International Relations (2006) This thesis aims to explore the Transdniestr conflict in Moldova by examining the involvements of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) and the Russian Federation in their attempts at finding a working solution to this conflict. The thesis focuses on the reasons for the emergence of the Transdniestr conflict, the initiatives for the settlement of this conflict, and the causes, as of today, why the conflicting parties and the mediators have not been successful in reaching a working ...

Citation Formats

A. M. İrat, “The Alevi community in Turkey after 1980: an evaluation of political group boundaries in the context of ethnicity theories,” M.S. - Master of Science, Middle East Technical University, 2006.