Decolonial and intersectional approach to media witnessing

Alevi persecutions and political mobilisation through media

Bibliographic Data

ID7472788
AuthorsKumru B Emre (University of the Arts London, corresponding author)
Year2026
Volume10
Issue1
Pages8
Publication date2026-02-13
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueFeminist Encounters A Journal of Critical Studies in Culture and Politics (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 2468-4414 • E-ISSN: 2468-4414
PublisherLectito Publications (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.20897/femenc/17896
OpenAlexW7128679649
LanguageEN
Citations received1
References cited30

Alevis are a persecuted ethno-religious community based in Turkey whose members have settled in various European countries since the 1960s. From the early years of the Turkish Republic, the broader Alevi community has witnessed through media the massacres that have befallen some of their members. The paper analyses Alevi media witnessing through two cases: Madımak (1993) and Sürgü (2012). While witnessing the Madımak massacre through mainstream Turkish media mobilised members of the community to form the Alevi movement, witnessing the attack on a family through Alevi media enabled them to prevent the massacre. Examining the cases of Madımak and Sürgü, the paper calls for a decolonial and intersectional approach to media witnessing. Critically engaging with the concept of media witnessing, the paper argues that the political potentials of media witnessing are mainly activated through drawing on collective memories of violence and atrocities. It also demonstrates the limitations of the political potentials of media witnessing without employing an intersectional lens towards different systems of power based on gender, ethnicity and so on

Ethnic group · Mainstream · Politics · Power (physics · Print media · Turkish · Diaspora, migration, transnational identity · Islamic Thought and Society Studies · Turkey's Politics and Society

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Open DOIOpen Access