Making The Folk Religion Folkloric In Nation-State Formation: The Political Construction of Alevism as a Secular Folkloric Element / Ulus-Devlet Oluşumunda Halk Dinini Folklorize Etmek: Aleviliğin Seküler Folklorik Bir Öge Olarak Siyasal İnşası

• Main Author: Murat Coşkuner
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Cyprus International University 2021-02-01
• Series: Folklor/Edebiyat
• Subjects: alevi-kizilbash; turkish nation-state; folklore; turkish nationality; secularity
• Online Access: https://www.folkloredebiyat.org/Makaleler/1808253990_17-%20ulus%20devlet%20halk%20dini.pdf

Due to their power to bring people together, religions have never fallen from the agenda of political life, they have been transformed depending on the power. The study, that asseses Alevi-Kizilbashes with ruling power in Turkey in such a context, will show how it is possible to ignore the religiosity of the Alevi-Kizilbashes. It will be shown that process of pushing the Alevi-Kizilbashes into this non-religious field provided two openings for the nation-state. The study will claim that one of these expansions is the homogenization of the religious area of Turkish society and the other is the construction of a secular cultural space for Turkey. By doing so, it will be shown that Ehl-i Sunnah could be raised to a monopoly position in the religious field, and thanks to these communities pushed into the non-religious folkloric area, Turkish state supports the claim that it has a secular cultural field in history. Within the scope of this study, in the first part, the political choices made by the nationalist elites while building national religion will be highlighted. In final section, it will be focused on how Alevi-Kizilbashes were pushed into the nonreligious field during the institutionalization of the national Turkish state