Alevi IDentıty

Turkish Alevi Groups are often reffered to in international massmedia with various epitheth like liberal muslims,extreme Shia sects or heretics.Hereby ambigous and contradictory images of the Alevi communities are produced and reproduced.For a long time the milieu in Yakup Kadri Karaosmanoglus novel Nur Baba was the prejudiced prototype for the backward and superstitious lives of the Alevi.Based on oral Jocular stories obaout Bektashi Dervishes the novel petrified pejorative common cliches of the Alevi as newly urbanized Anatolian peasants and the lodge as the site of corruption and decadence.İn contemporary Turkey,The Alevi serve the role as the significant other and the public notion is to al large extent formed by a number of dramatic events:clashes in Kahramanmaras in 1979 and Corum in 1980,the incendiarism in Sivas 1993,and the riots in İstanbul(Gaziosmanpaşa) in 1995.Less evocative but in the long rum more significant is the current rising enthusiasm for Alevi folklore,oral Traditions and religious Practices.The Fact that Alevi cemevis,centres of cultural and religious gatherings,have increased in number is significant for these changes in attitude and self-definition.

Turkish Alevi Groups are often reffered to in international massmedia with various epitheth like liberal muslims,extreme Shia sects or heretics.Hereby ambigous and contradictory images of the Alevi communities are produced and reproduced.For a long time the milieu in Yakup Kadri Karaosmanoglus novel Nur Baba was the prejudiced prototype for the backward and superstitious lives of the Alevi.Based on oral Jocular stories obaout Bektashi Dervishes the novel petrified pejorative common cliches of the Alevi as newly urbanized Anatolian peasants and the lodge as the site of corruption and decadence.İn contemporary Turkey,The Alevi serve the role as the significant other and the public notion is to al large extent formed by a number of dramatic events:clashes in Kahramanmaras in 1979 and Corum in 1980,the incendiarism in Sivas 1993,and the riots in İstanbul(Gaziosmanpaşa) in 1995.Less evocative but in the long rum more significant is the current rising enthusiasm for Alevi folklore,oral Traditions and religious Practices.The Fact that Alevi cemevis,centres of cultural and religious gatherings,have increased in number is significant for these changes in attitude and self-definition.