A Precarious Relationship: The Alevi Minority, the Turkish State and the EU

Abstract

Abstract Over the last decade, the political significance of the Alevis, the largest sectarian Muslim minority in Turkey, has notably changed. This article aims to evaluate the Alevi community's changing stance as a sectarian minority within an increasingly conservative Turkish society facing European Union (EU) membership negotiations. We first of all summarise the characteristics of the Alevi community and contextualise the changing role of the Alevi minority in Turkish politics. We focus on Alevi demands as part of the EU adjustment reforms and negotiation process, and present the official responses from the Justice and Development Party (AKP) government as well as the EU authorities. Keywords: AlevisMinority RightsEuropean UnionTurkey Notes [1] For a comprehensive overview of Alevi issues and Alevi involvement in Turkish politics, see White and Jongerden (Citation2003) and Shankland (Citation2007). [2] For comprehensive reviews of the large and growing literature on this divide between the secularists and Islamists, see Kuru (Citation2009) and Yavuz (Citation2009a). [3] Notable exceptions to this peaceful coexistence of the Alevi and Sunni communities can be seen in bloody clashes between the two communities in the late 1970s in Çorum and Kahramanmaraş. In early July 1993, an Alevi group called the Pir Sultan Abdal Association sponsored a conference in Sivas which was confronted by Sunni reactionists who set fire to the hotel where the conference was being held. As a consequence, 37 participants died in the flames and smoke (see Doğan Citation2007; Sökefeld Citation2008; White & Jongerden 2003). [4] For accessible accounts of the religious characteristics of Alevism, see Zeidan (Citation1999), Shindeldecker (Citation1996) and Shankland (Citation2007). [5] See Toprak and colleagues (2009) for an authoritative depiction of the state of the Alevi community in diverse Anatolian towns. [6] For reasons for this failure on the part of the AKP initiatives to appeal to the Alevi community, see CitationÇarkoğlu and Bilgili (forthcoming). [7] See Radikal (Citation2006). However, as Çarkoğlu (Citation2005) notes, despite the commonly held view that Alevis support the CHP, they appear in significant numbers in other major party constituencies as well. Thus, such a partisan variation in decisions to recognise cem houses as places of worship is not surprising.