Kurds, Turks and the Alevi revival in Turkey

Middle East Report

Volumn , Issue 200, 1996, Pages 7-10

  Van Bruinessen, Martin ^a  

^a UTRECHT UNIVERSITY   (Netherlands)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

CULTURAL DIVERSITY; KURDISH PEOPLE; RELIGIOUS MINORITY;

TURKEY;

EID: 0030429131     PISSN: 08992851     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.2307/3013260     Document Type: Article

References (18)

1. A recent study, by Peter Andrews, Ethnic Groups in the Republic of Turkey (Wiesbaden: Reichert, 1989), enumerates 47 distinct ethnic groups in Turkey. Other criteria for ethnic identity may yield an even higher number.
2. This was Serafettin Elôi, then minister of public works. After the 1980 military coup he was sentenced to two years imprisonment for this remark.
3. This law was a product of the 1980-83 military regime. It violated several international agreements on the protection of minorities to which Turkey was a party. See C. Rumpf, "The Turkish Law Prohibiting Languages Other than Turkish," in Documentation of the International Conference on Human Rights in Kurdistan, 14-16 April 1989 (Hochschule Bremen, 1989), pp. 68-89; and idem, "Das Sprachenverbot in der Türkei unter besonderer Berücksichtigung ihrer völkerrechtlichen Verpflichtungen," Orient 30 (Hamburg, 1989), 413-27.
4. This law was a product of the 1980-83 military regime. It violated several international agreements on the protection of minorities to which Turkey was a party. See C. Rumpf, "The Turkish Law Prohibiting Languages Other than Turkish," in Documentation of the International Conference on Human Rights in Kurdistan, 14-16 April 1989 (Hochschule Bremen, 1989), pp. 68-89; and idem, "Das Sprachenverbot in der Türkei unter besonderer Berücksichtigung ihrer völkerrechtlichen Verpflichtungen," Orient 30 (Hamburg, 1989), 413-27.
5. See Aliza Marcus, "Eyewitness Account of an Alevi Uprising in Gazi," Middle East Report (Spring, 1996).
6. There is no exemplary description in English of Alevism as a religion. Most useful are S. van Rensselaer Trowbridge, "The 'Alevis," The Moslem World 11 (1921), 253-66; and I. Markoff, "Music, Saints, and Ritual: Sama' and the Alevis of Turkey," in G. Martin Smith and C.W. Ernst, eds., Manifestations of Sainthood in Islam (Istanbul: Isis, 1993), pp. 95-110. The only systematic study presently available is in German: Krisztina Kehl-Bodrogi, Die Kizilbas/Aleviten (Berlin: Schwarz, 1988).
7. There is no exemplary description in English of Alevism as a religion. Most useful are S. van Rensselaer Trowbridge, "The 'Alevis," The Moslem World 11 (1921), 253-66; and I. Markoff, "Music, Saints, and Ritual: Sama' and the Alevis of Turkey," in G. Martin Smith and C.W. Ernst, eds., Manifestations of Sainthood in Islam (Istanbul: Isis, 1993), pp. 95-110. The only systematic study presently available is in German: Krisztina Kehl-Bodrogi, Die Kizilbas/Aleviten (Berlin: Schwarz, 1988).
8. On these rebellions see H.-L. Kieser, Les Kurdes alévis face au nationalisme turc kémaliste. L'alévité du Dersim et son rôle dans le premier soulèvement kurde contre Mustafa Kemal (Koçkiri, 1919-1921) (Amsterdam: MERA, 1993); M. van Bruinessen, "Genocide in Kurdistan?: The Suppression of the Dersim Rebellion in Turkey (1937-38) and the Chemical War against the Iraqi Kurds (1988)", in G.J. Andreopoulos, ed., Genocide: Conceptual and Historical Dimensions (University of Pennsylvania Press, 1994), 141-170.
9. On these rebellions see H.-L. Kieser, Les Kurdes alévis face au nationalisme turc kémaliste. L'alévité du Dersim et son rôle dans le premier soulèvement kurde contre Mustafa Kemal (Koçkiri, 1919-1921) (Amsterdam: MERA, 1993); M. van Bruinessen, "Genocide in Kurdistan?: The Suppression of the Dersim Rebellion in Turkey (1937-38) and the Chemical War against the Iraqi Kurds (1988)", in G.J. Andreopoulos, ed., Genocide: Conceptual and Historical Dimensions (University of Pennsylvania Press, 1994), 141-170.
10. See B. Toprak, "Religion as State Ideology in a Secular Setting: The Turkish-Islamic synthesis," in M. Wagstaff, ed., Aspects of religion in secular Turkey (University of Durham, Centre for Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies, 1990), pp. 10-15; Feroz Ahmad, "Islamic Reassertion in Turkey," Third World Quarterly 10 (1988), 750-69.
11. See B. Toprak, "Religion as State Ideology in a Secular Setting: The Turkish-Islamic synthesis," in M. Wagstaff, ed., Aspects of religion in secular Turkey (University of Durham, Centre for Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies, 1990), pp. 10-15; Feroz Ahmad, "Islamic Reassertion in Turkey," Third World Quarterly 10 (1988), 750-69.
12. This is notably the case of the TKP-ML (Communist Party of Turkey/Marxist-Leninist) and its various splinters.
13. An excellent overview of this recent flood of books on Alevism, understood as part of the process of construction an Alevi "ethnic" identity, is given by Karin Vorhoff, Zwischen Glaube, Nation und neuer Gemeinschaft: Alevitische Identität in der Türkei der Gegenwart (Berlin: Schwarz, 1995).
14. The Alevi vote has always been divided over the whole political spectrum, but the political party closest to the Alevis was the Social Democrat Populist Party (SHP), which had several vocal Alevi deputies. In 1991 the SHP became a junior partner in the government coalition with the True Path Party (DYP), led by Süleyman Demirel and later Mrs. Çiller.
15. One manifestation of this support was official sponsorship of the annual festival commemorating the Alevi Saint Haji Bektash. This festival, celebrated for the first time in 1964, had become the country's major left-wing cultural festival during the 1970s, was depoliticised during the 1980s, and received government patronage in the 1990s. Politicians of all parties now put in appearances in order to show how much they like the Alevis.
16. There were, however, individual police officers who did make efforts to save people. One of those saved, ironically, was Aziz Nesin, who was not recognised at first. Once they realised who he was, some firemen and a policeman started beating him up, but others protected him and rushed him to hospital.
17. The public prosecutor of the Ankara State Security Court, Nusret Demiral, even announced his intention to start proceedings against Nesin and request the death penalty.
18. On these ideological debates, see my "Aslini inkar eden haramzadedir! The Debate on the Ethnic Identity of the Kurdish Alevis" (forthcoming).