ABSTRACT
This chapter analyses the transformation of the power relations between the state and Alevis in Turkey from repression and silence to a transient period of visibility and recognition, which has led to re-marginalisation in the last decade. I suggest that the relationships of power and struggle between transnational, national and local dynamics shape discourses and practices of identity, especially those of outsiders whose practices of identity are inseparable from their historical repression and marginalisation. A shift in policies towards Alevis from repression to recognition parallels the Turkish state’s shifting relationship with minorities from the early moment of nation-state formation to its efforts to enter the European Union. Alevi migration to cities, where they have formed identity-based organisations and have held religious/cultural practices in public spaces called cemevi, has also played a role in their visibility and the publicity of Alevis’ identity-based demands from the state.
