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“Let's Reclaim Our History and Culture!”— Imagining Alevi Community in Contemporary Turkey

“Let's Reclaim Our History and Culture!”— Imagining Alevi Community in Contemporary Turkey “LET’S RECLAIM OUR HISTORY AND CULTURE!”— IMAGINING ALEVI COMMUNITY IN CONTEMPORARY TURKEY 1 BY KARIN VORHOFF Istanbul “ pasts are restored, fellowships are imagined, and futures dreamed ” 2 In March 1995 a violent assault on Alevi coffee houses in an Istanbul squatter area killed two people and left several others injured. The mass rally that followed the shooting quickly turned into a violent political protest, and more than twenty people were shot dead by police. Though for some ten years the Alevis of Turkey had been the subject of a lively public debate in the coun- try itself, the massacre drew world attention to a socioreligious group that had to then been more or less unknown. My contribution to the understanding of the process of revival and cultural self-assertion that has recently grasped the Alevi com- munity will first sketch the background and contours of the theo- retical problem and then will consider the role of “history” and “tradition” in the processes of the formation and maintenance of this movement. Simultaneously I hope to introduce orientalists to 1 This article is the revised and enlarged version of a lecture presented at the Orient-Institut der Deutschen Morgenländischen Gesellschaft http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Die Welt des Islams Brill

“Let's Reclaim Our History and Culture!”— Imagining Alevi Community in Contemporary Turkey

Die Welt des Islams , Volume 38 (2): 220 – Jan 1, 1998

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Publisher
Brill
Copyright
© 1998 Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands
ISSN
0043-2539
eISSN
1570-0607
DOI
10.1163/1570060981254804
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

“LET’S RECLAIM OUR HISTORY AND CULTURE!”— IMAGINING ALEVI COMMUNITY IN CONTEMPORARY TURKEY 1 BY KARIN VORHOFF Istanbul “ pasts are restored, fellowships are imagined, and futures dreamed ” 2 In March 1995 a violent assault on Alevi coffee houses in an Istanbul squatter area killed two people and left several others injured. The mass rally that followed the shooting quickly turned into a violent political protest, and more than twenty people were shot dead by police. Though for some ten years the Alevis of Turkey had been the subject of a lively public debate in the coun- try itself, the massacre drew world attention to a socioreligious group that had to then been more or less unknown. My contribution to the understanding of the process of revival and cultural self-assertion that has recently grasped the Alevi com- munity will first sketch the background and contours of the theo- retical problem and then will consider the role of “history” and “tradition” in the processes of the formation and maintenance of this movement. Simultaneously I hope to introduce orientalists to 1 This article is the revised and enlarged version of a lecture presented at the Orient-Institut der Deutschen Morgenländischen Gesellschaft

Journal

Die Welt des IslamsBrill

Published: Jan 1, 1998

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