Turkish Diversity: The Alevites

In this article I will explain what Alevites are, what they think of the current government of Turkey (AKP), how the average Turkish Sunni thinks of them and what there role in Turkish politics are.

History

Ottoman period

Alevites often confused with Alawites (I honestly don't know what the differences between them are) are Shia Muslims. Some Turkish tribes who arrived in Northern-Persia converted to Alevitism. During the Ottoman period they were mostly persecuted by their Sunni Masters espacially during the reign of Selim Yavuz who hated Shia muslims and ordered mass killings in Safawid Shia Persia but also in his own country against his Alevite minority. Funny fact is that the new bridge Erdogan wants to build is named after him, it depends how you look at it but you can compare it to naming a street in Germany to Hitler or call your Kurdish son Saddam. 

Republican period

This is how a man looks like !

Alevis were early supporters of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, whom they credit with ending Ottoman-Era discrimination against them, while Kurdish Alevis viewes his rise with caution. For your information, Kurdish Alevites are Zaza's, they have their own language, make up 5 million people and are like the morrocans of Turkey (criminality is far higher, they're more agressive etc).

On July 2, 1993, Alevis were celebrating the Pir Sultan Festival. Coming out of the Mosques after their Friday's prayer, a mob of roughly 20.000 Sunni Fundementalists surrounded them chanting anti-Alevi and pro Sharia slogans. The events quickly escalated and the mob ultimately set the hotel on fire killing 37 Alevis while the police and the fire department did nothing. There was also a drive-by shooting of Alevis in Instanbul's Gazi neighborhood in 1995 which resulted in the death of some Alevis. Then when protests followed, police periodically opened fire on the demonstrators. When the protests were over, there were 16 Alevi protesters killed.

Alevites in Daily life

they make 1/5 of the Turkish population

The relation of Alevi-Sunni people have never been great to be honest, I come from a conservative Sunni family and I can say that Sunni's have alot of prejudices on how Alevites practise their form of Islam. You can describe Alevites as very liberal, they mostly don't go to mosques, believe in equality between women and men and are very secular. I honestly like them, they're very wise people in my eyes but not everybody thinks like me. I know that Alevites aren't liked by many conservative Sunni famillies. This makes them the hardest Anti-Erdogan protesters, because of the simple fact they know there is no place for them in Erdogan's dream for an Ottoman Sunni Caliphate.

Their relation with Turkish Nationalists isn't great either, Alevites are well know to support Socialist and Communist parties. These hostilities escalated in the 80' when Right Winged Turks and Left Winged Turks attacked each other.

Some extra interesting facts were that during Gezi protests the protesters were mostly Alevi and the 8 killed protesters were all Alevis (including Berkin Elvan).
Alevis have also a strong sense of brotherhood with President Assad of Syria, not in favour of Erdogan ofcourse...