The Looming Shadow of Violence and Loss: Alevi Responses to Persecution and Discrimination

Nil Mutluer

Journal of Balkan and Near Eastern Studies, 2016, vol. 18, issue 2, 145-156

Abstract: In the collective memories of the Alevis, three ‘acts of violence‘ mark the period spanning the 1960s to 1980s: the consequences of the rapid urbanization of the 1960s, the massacres of the 1970s and the state-induced persecution and oppression of the left-wing political movements in the aftermath of the 1980 coup. These ‘acts of violence‘ have left the imprints of two losses in the collective memories of the Alevis: the loss of the feelings of social and economic security, and the loss of political trust in the state. Recently, the Alevi community’s response to the AKP’s coming to power was that of a cautious ambivalence. This ambiguity did not last long, and, with the so-called Alevi opening of the AKP, governments ended up in a deadlock, and also with the outbreak of the civil war in Syria in 2011 and the Gezi protests in 2013, the looming shadow of violence and loss once again fell on the collective memories of the Alevi community. This article analyses this process from the 1960s onwards.

Date: 2016
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DOI: 10.1080/19448953.2016.1141583

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