The Looming Shadow of Violence and Loss

Alevi Responses to Persecution and Discrimination

Bibliographic Data

ID21208271
AuthorsNil Mutluer (0000-0003-4812-1568, İstanbul Nişantaşı Üniversitesi, corresponding author)
Year2016
Volume18
Issue2
Pages145-156
Publication date2016-03-03
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Balkan and Near Eastern Studies (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1944-8953 • E-ISSN: 1944-8961
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/19448953.2016.1141583
OpenAlexW2332466507
LanguageEN
Citations received9

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

Ambivalence · Criminology · Looming · Oppression · Persecution · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Psychoanalysis · Sociology · Islamic Studies and History · Jewish and Middle Eastern Studies · Law · Psychology · Social Psychology · Turkey's Politics and Society

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