Political Discourses on Alevis and Alevism During Akp Era
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View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by Sabanci University Research Database POLITICAL DISCOURSES ON ALEVIS AND ALEVISM DURING AKP ERA by ELİF SELÇUK Submitted to the Graduate School of Arts and Social Sciences In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts Sabancı University Spring 2014 POLITICAL DISCOURSES ON ALEVIS AND ALEVISM DURING AKP ERA APPROVED BY: Ateş Altınordu ………………………. (Thesis Advisor) Akşin Somel ……………………….. Özge Kemahlıoğlu ………………………… DATE OF APPROVAL: 03.09.2014 COPYRIGHT Page @ Elif Selçuk 2014 All Rights Reserved ii EXECUTIVE SUMMARY POLITICAL DISCOURSES ON ALEVIS AND ALEVISM DURING AKP ERA Elif Selçuk MA in Political Science Thesis, 2014 Advisor: Dr. Ateş Altınordu Keywords: Alevis, Alevism, Political Discourse, Secularism Turkish secularism has been employed as a foundation of modernization since the founding of the Turkish Republic. But it has also been criticized severely, given its dilemmas. One basic dilemma is caused by the fact that Sunnism, the faith held by the majority, has become established as one of tenets of the Turkish national identity by the founders. The role and influence of Sunnism have been enhanced with multi-party democracy, to be accelerated after the 1980 coup. As a result, the non-Sunnis have faced difficulties and discrimination when practicing their faith. Political discourses about the largest non-Sunni group, the Alevis, are studied in this master’s thesis, in relation with the discussion, perception and presentation of their demands regarding the practice of Alevism during the 2000s. Like in previous periods, different parties used different discourses to defend or challenge the status quo. Unity has been a popular discourse, strengthened by the conspiracy and separatism discourses, used to justify the status quo and the differential treatment of non-Sunnis. Alevis, on the other hand, have used diversity and identity discourses to demand their rights, until the 2000s. The 2000s has been a debated period regarding transformations in terms of democracy, secularism and pluralism. During this era, Alevis began using democracy and equal citizenship discourses, leaving the identity and diversity discourse. On the iii other side, unity discourse has become to be increasingly used with reference to faith. But the debates has not led to positive, concrete outcomes for Alevis except for the increasing visibility of their faith and demands. iv ÖZET AKP DÖNEMİNDE ALEVİLER VE ALEVİLİKLE İLGİLİ KULLANILAN POLİTİK SÖYLEMLER Elif Selçuk Siyaset Bilimi Yüksek Lisans Tezi, 2014 Tez Danışmanı: Dr. Ateş Altınordu Anahtar Kelimeler: Alevi, Alevilik, Politik Söylem, Laiklik Laiklik Türkiye'de Cumhuriyetin kuruluşundan bu yana modernleşmenin temellerinden biri olmuştur. Ama aynı zamanda, çelişkileri sebebiyle, ciddi biçimde eleştirilmiştir. Temel çelişkilerden biri çoğunluk inancı olan Sünniliğin Cumhuriyetin kurucuları tarafından milli kimliğin temellerinden biri olarak yerleştirilmesinden kaynaklanmaktadır. Sünniliğin rolü ve etkisi çok partili demokrasiye geçiş sonrasında ve özellikle 1980 darbesi sonrasında giderek arttı. Bu gelişmeler sonucunda da Sünni olmayanlar inançlarını yerine getirme konusunda ayrımcılık ve zorluklarla karşılaştılar. Bu yüksek lisans tezinde 2000'lerde, Sünni olmayan en büyük grup olarak, Alevilerle ilgili politik söylemler, inançlarına dair taleplerinin algılanması ve sunumu, tartışılmaktadır. Bu dönemde, daha önce yapıldığı gibi, taraflar statükoyu koruma ya da değiştirme amaçlı olarak farklı söylemler ileri sürmüşlerdir. 2000'lere dek ayrılıkçılık ve komplo söylemlerinin yanı sıra kullanılan popüler birlik söylemi Alevilere farklı davranılmasını haklı çıkarıp statükoyu korumayı amaçlarken, Aleviler haklarını ararken farklılık ve kimlik söylemlerine başvurdular. 2000'ler demokrasi, laiklik ve çoğulculukla ilgili çok tartışılan bir değişim dönemi oldu. Bu dönemde Aleviler farklılık ve kimlik söylemlerinden vazgeçip demokrasi ve eşit v vatandaşlık söylemini kullanırken diğer tarafta statükocu birlik söylemi gitgide dini referanslara dayalı olarak kullanılmaya başlandı. Fakat bu tartışmalar sonucunda Aleviler, inanç ve taleplerinin artan görünürlüğü dışında, olumlu ve somut sonuçlar elde edemedi. vi ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I want to thank my supervisor Dr. Ateş Altınordu for the guidance and support provided, regarding the language, content and structure of this thesis. I also want to thank the Thesis Committee members, Professor Akşin Somel and Dr. Özge Kemahlıoğlu for the feedback they provided to improve the thesis in terms of making it more accurate, focused and structured. Lastly I want to thank my friend Dr.Eminegül Karababa for her valuable comments and our long discussions to make this thesis a meaningful study and contribution, if any. vii TABLE OF CONTENTS COPYRIGHT PAGE……………………………………………………………....ii EXECUTIVE SUMMARY………………………………………………………..iii ÖZET………………………………………………………………………………...v ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS………………………………………………………vii TABLE OF CONTENTS………………………………………………………....viii CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION 1.1. General Introduction…………………………………………………..1 1.2. Turkish Secularism…………………………………………………….3 1.3. Aim and Methodology…………………………………………………5 CHAPTER 2.ALEVIS AND ALEVISM BEFORE THE RISE OF AKP 2.1.Alevism………………………………………………………………....10 2.2.History………………………………………………………………….11 2.3.Developments during the final decade of the Twentieth Century………………………………………………………..14 2.4.Major Events of 1990s………………………………………………..18 CHAPTER 3.ALEVIS VIS-A-VIS RULING AKP AND MAJOR PARTIES 3.1.State and Alevism-Reform Attempts………………………………...24 3.1.1.Alevi Opening……………………………………………….25 3.1.2.Democratization Package…………………………………..30 3.2. Alevis and Party Politics……………………………………………..31 3.2.1.ANAP………………………….…………………………….32 viii 3.2.2.AKP………………………………………………………….33 3.2.3.CHP………………………………………………………….36 3.2.4.MHP……………………………………………………........38 3.2.5.BDP………………………………………………………….39 3.3. Events related to Alevis and Alevism 3.3.1.Gezi Riots………………........................................................41 3.3.2.Syrian Friction……………………………………………....43 3.3.3.Foreign Interpretations……………………………………..44 3.4.Contested Issues………………………………………………….........47 3.4.1.Cemevis………………………………………………………48 3.4.2.Education…………………………………………………….55 3.4.3.Directorate of Religious Affairs (DRA)……………………66 CHAPTER 4. GENERAL CONCLUSIONS AND DISCUSSION 4.1.State of Demands………………………………………………...........74 4.2.Discourses Used…………………………………………………..........75 4.3.Discussion……………………………………………………………....79 Bibliography……………………………………………………………………….89 ix CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION 1.1.General Introduction Turkey has a unique position among countries which have predominantly Muslim populations with its secular democracy. While Turkey’s efforts at secularization go back to the nineteenth century along with its modernization efforts its democracy is relatively younger, dating back to the second half of 1940s. Turkey has been heir to the 600-year old Ottoman Empire, a religious and ethnic mosaic, where elements were kept apart with the millet system, but collapsed after reform efforts failed. The efforts at secularism, modernization and nation-building had to go hand-in- hand after the founding of the new Republic, complicating the success of each one. The demographic structure was transformed in terms of ethnicity and religion in a rather short period due to mass immigration and deaths owing to wars, riots, and violence. This intricate process was made even more complicated owing to the influence of inherited traditions, structure and mindsets as well as fears developed while the Empire collapsed with a wave of independence wars and violence. This generalized fear was later to be called the Sevres syndrome (Aras, 2009; Akçam, 2001). The founders of the new polity found themselves with a people made up of mostly Muslim immigrants from the Balkans, unlike the ethno-religious mosaic of the lost empire as mentioned above. As a result, the founding fathers of the new Republic focused on Turkish nationalism to bond the new nation while pan-Islamism and pan-Ottomanism formulas failed to save the Ottoman Empire as last efforts. As the Empire became the Turkish Republic the Westernist camp of the Ottoman civil and military bureaucrats designed the new Republic to imitate the West not just regarding science and teachnology but also institutions, culture and values, in line with the ideal of becoming “a civilized nation” set by its founding father, Atatürk. Şerif Mardin (1983) explains this transition period of reforming of the millet system towards a modern system with the new cadre of bureaucrats who were educated with the 1 rationalism and positivism of the West, perceiving and enforcing societal reforms in a mechanistic manner as a result. In Turkey the state aimed to create its nation with a mechanistic, top-down approach to design, not only the state system and organizations but also, the society and people. It has also been debated whether the national identity was created from nothing or rather the latent, potential elements underlying were stimulated to become manifest by the state, as proposed by Lewis. Bernard Lewis also claimed that the Kemalist establishment “misidentified” the people, proposing this identity based on Turkishness, as the real Turkish people were religious. Lewis (1961) calls this early period of the new Republic designing the society via secularism towards modernity “an eclipse”. Lewis suggested that Islamic components would eventually return to public life and predicted that