CHANGING PERIODS BUT PERMANENT REPRESSION AGAINST THE ALEVI RELIGIOUS MINORITY IN THE REPUBLIC OF TURKIYE

This thesis is mainly based on analysing the general governance of religion in Turkiye and attempting to understand the possibility of equal citizenship for Alevi communities who have been faced with repression and persecution. In this regard, state strategy over religion in the early republican era, transition period of Turkish democracy between 1960-80 and AKP rule since 2002 will be elaborated to understand the reasons behind the society based religious discrimination and current situation of the Alevi communities in the country. In this thesis, the research method will be mainly based on qualitative analysis of primary and secondary sources. The situation of Alevi communities and their equal citizenship rights are important to analyse and evaluate in three terms. Firstly, Alevi religious minority in Turkiye is a unique example in the world where a minority group shares the same ethnicity and religion with the majority of the country but face discrimination in regards to their heterodox way of understanding of this religion. It is necessary and important to bring in this unique example to the religious minority literature to broaden the scope of the research. Secondly, several scholars and researchers in both Turkiye and Europe already evaluated the Alevi problem independently from general governance of the religion in Turkish history. However, in order to understand the current situation and the possibility of equal citizenship; it is important to take into consideration the starting point of religious movements, policy changes that shaped the current situation of Turkish politics and the nature of the accelerator points for society. Then lastly, Alevi communities have been left out, persecuted or discriminated against for a long period. However, they are still keeping their religious and cultural values up to this day. It is important to underline the historical background and attempt to understand the current situation by pointing out the fight that has been given by these people for years. Concerning this, it must be underlined that this thesis occurred with the combination of academic motivation and personal experience of being a member of this unique community. In the first chapter, a general discussion on the rights of minority religions and state strategies on governance of religions will be discussed in detail by referring to the current literature in this topic. The second chapter is going to deepen the analysis within Turkiye, by evaluating the historical background of the Alevi communities and their treatment in the country. Here, three main Alevi massacres will be taken into consideration in order to understand the complex relation between state and society based religious repression. After this, the third chapter will dive into the state policies of these three periods; early republican era which was dominated by assertive secularism, transition period of Turkish democracy that took place between two coup d'etat in 1960 and 1980, and Justice and Development Party (AKP) rule since 2002. With the detailed evaluation of state policies about the place of religion, the last chapter will be based on judicial processes of Alevi communities for their rights and fight against the unequal treatment. Both internal and international cases related to the Alevi minority rights will be discussed to understand the current situation in Turkiye in regards to the possibility of equal citizenship rights.