Almanya Alevileri’nin Sorun ve Talepleri İle Almanya’nın Alevi Politikası

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Thesis Type: Postgraduate

Institution Of The Thesis: Istanbul University, Institute of Social Sciences, Edebiyat Fakültesi Bölümü, Turkey

Approval Date: 2014

Thesis Language: Turkish

Student: Ali ALTUN

Supervisor: Ali Arslan

Abstract:

Alevism enjoys great popularity both in media and academic world recently; the subject has been discussed and researched more and more. Alevis' popularity can be explained besides their visibility in public sphere and raising their voice after the introduction of multiparty system in Turkish Republic, by the encounter with urbanization and the orientation of the country westwards, which affected this group intensely. The currency of Alevi by not stopping political incidents after 1960 and their perception as a to be kept secret matter until 1950's are reasons of growing interest in this subject amongst others. So far, academic works in Turkish or other languages have searched and discussed historical, religious and cultural aspects. However, the movement of the population in Turkey from rural areas to cities and to foreign countries from 1960's on have introduced Alevi novelties in politics, culture, economy, religion and social fields and caused several changes in traditional Alevi believes and institutions. Having witnessed great changes in sociological areas at the time, Alevi were criticized of their "politicization". Another development causing a boost of criticism was Alevis' direction of their demands to Turkey about their own issues via USA and European countries, and by recommendations and censure resolutions of EU-Institutions like EU-Council and EU-Parliament. While Germany has not differentiated between Alevi and Sunnite and has not been even aware of such a distinction until shortly, the country seems to embrace only Alevi with almost all of its bodies and institutions nowadays. Alevi "matter" became also a major attraction for churches, party foundations, universities, labor unions, briefly for almost all parts of the society. This was no matter of interest for Turkish community in Germany and Turkey, but attracted Germany's and other EU-Countries' attention at the beginning of 1990's or was intentionally kept on the agenda by several methods and occasions. This work explores problems and demands of Alevi residing in Germany and their relationship to the country. It considers in the framework of German interior and exterior goals how public view and politicians' and intellectuals' opinion about the subject is and how they evaluate Alevis' aspirations and demands, who are the focus of the efforts of growing the issue to an international problem. Keywords: Germany Alewis, Social Transformation, Integration, Alewi Institutions