Alevism: Where is it headed? What does it want?

Hasan Kanbolat

The 30th meeting of the Abant Platform, at which the Journalists and Writers Foundation (GYV) now makes a traditional appearance, took place between Dec. 13-15 under the general title “Alevis and Sunnis: Searching for Peace and A Future Together.”

The three-day conference took place along the snowy shore of Bolu's Abant Lake and was attended by 144 intellectuals who debated topics such as “Belief Relations in the Middle East,” “The Social Prices Paid for Polarization,” “Equality in Rights and Freedoms” and “Alevis and Sunnis: Let's Get Reacquainted.” Rather than summarizing what was said at this meeting, though, I'd like to do a bit of analysis.

Along with Turkey, the Alevis are changing. During the Ottoman years, and up until the 1950s, Alevis lived mostly in provincial areas of the country, with the cities inhabited largely by Sunnis, Christians and Jewish people. But in the Turkey of today, many villages have simply eroded, with Alevis heading for the cities. The transition from provincial Alevi culture to city-dwelling Alevi culture has sometimes been a painful one.

Alevism is a heterodox belief. There are sometimes great disparities between Alevi culture depending on the ethnicity and the region of the Alevis in question. At the same though, among the Alevis of different ethnicities (Turkish, Kurdish, Arab) coming from different Anatolian regions (Black Sea, Aegean, East), there are attempts to create a shared Alevi culture in the big cities amongst those who are now the third generation there. In fact, the Alevis of Turkey wish to push outside of the role into which they have been cast in Turkey. In the Turkey of today, Alevis can be found largely in the service sector.

Urbanized Alevis are made uncomfortable by their lack of representation in Turkish politics today; the Turkish political scene is more Sunni-oriented than it was during the Ottoman era. The sectarian-based redesign unfolding throughout the Middle East, as well as the war in Syria, have opened the path to the “Middle Easternization” of Turkey's political structure. The sectarian-based (and ethnically-based) redesigning of Lebanon, Syria, and Iraq has begun to unfold in Turkey as well.

And so it is that the increasingly sectarian polarization that has begun to emerge throughout the Middle East is also now occurring in Turkey. What differentiates Turkey from the Middle East on this front is that the sectarian polarization has not turned into armed clashes. Of course, prior to the AK Party's leadership, there were some incidences of violence and carnage targeting Alevis in Anatolia. But these always remained very local in nature.

So what will be the outcome of the increasingly sectarian polarization visible in Turkey these days? More regionally limited violence targeting Alevis? Widespread clashes? A start up of initiatives aimed at helping Alevis? The protests surrounding Gezi were important for Alevis for two reasons. The first was that after the first few days of the Gezi protests, it became clear that it was an uprising of Alevis, but without the name “Alevi” attached to it. Though Alevis had faced carnage in various spots throughout Anatolia in the past, Gezi was the first time they were facing off against the security forces of the state. The second important point concerning Gezi and the Alevis was that it offered the first clues as to how the Syrian civil war was beginning to affect city-dwelling Alevi culture, and about the increasing influence of Iranian Shiitism on Alevis.

Alevis are displeased with their situation as it stands in Turkish political life. They are not happy either with the difficulties they experience in the service sector of the economy, nor with their elimination from the bureaucracy. Their desire is certainly to play a bigger role and get a bigger share in the politics, bureaucracy and economy in the Turkey of today, which is expanding and opening up to the world and becoming wealthier. Among the most essential wishes of Alevis today is to both see their share in these arenas increased, as well as to bring about a real shared city culture. Which is why we are now at the start of a new decade of getting reacquainted with Alevism in the city.

Published on Today's Zaman, 16 December 2013, Monday