Turkish Alevi poetry in the twentieth century: the fusion of political and religious identities.

This article examines Turkish Alevi poetry in the twentieth century focusing on how the Alevi community integrates political issues within a traditionally religious genre. The figure of Kemal Ataturk, the state ideology of Kemalism, and the acts of violence the Alevi community have experienced under the Republic are recurring themes in this poetry. A contextual interpretation of Alevi poems contradicts our commonsense understanding of the supposedly distinct categories of religion and politics. The Alevi worldview does not operate with notions of "sacred" versus "profane" and indeed challenges our conception of religion and politics as distinct categories. The Alevi case provides us with a fascinating example of how we are caught in our terminological categories when we ignore the worldview of our subjects.

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[R]eligious studies as a cognitive discipline may actually distort or reduce that which it is claiming to investigate. As an example of this we shall consider the possibility that the secular framework upon which the modern discipline of religious studies is founded may actually subordinate religious phenomena and emic explanations of it to a secular meta-discourse. (Richard King, Orientalism and Religion, 42f.)

Entering Alevi spaces, such as association buildings, private living rooms, or cemevis, (1) one is very often confronted by a surprising visual arrangement: the portraits of the two Alevi saints, Ali and Haci Bektas, accompanied by that of Kemal Ataturk, the founding father and first president of the Turkish Republic, whose picture is almost omnipresent in Turkey. (2) Ataturk is commonly understood as a symbol for the state ideology of Kemalism, especially its key republican and secularist principles. Some Alevis, however, not only strongly uphold these republican and secularist principles, but also give them a religious meaning. These Alevis honor Ataturk as a saint, and also embed laicism and certain themes of republican history into their religious narrative.

About twenty percent of Turkish citizens are estimated to be of "Alevi" background. (3) The label "Alevism," referring to the veneration of the first Shiite Imam Ali, became popular at the beginning of the twentieth century, when it was applied to a number of regional socio-religious communities with similar beliefs, rituals, and social structures. (4)

The aim of the present paper is to investigate the fusion of religious and political identities of Alevism by examining Alevi religious poems of the twentieth century. Poetry is the medium in which this fusion is the most apparent. The medium of the poem offers a distinct voice that--through the use of the stylistic devices of metaphors and analogies--allows the formulation of positions not necessarily expressible in prose. I will look at the ways political issues are framed in these poems. Categorized according to topics, the given examples of Alevi poetry will illustrate the embedding of a variety of political themes in religious contexts.

To provide the background of the poems, it will first be necessary to outline some basic information about Alevi beliefs and history, as well as the role and the place of poetical tradition in Alevism. On a theoretical level, the goal here is to offer a sufficient explanation for the incorporation of political symbols and incidents into the religious narrative of Alevism. I will argue that the phenomenon has to be understood in the context of the societal developments of the twentieth century and the Alevi interpretation of these developments. However, I do not consider the historical approach alone as a sufficient explanation. There are particular aspects of the Alevi worldview that have to be taken into account. As I will try to show, the Alevi worldview has no proper equivalents for a paradigmatic way of thinking that explores religion by reference to dichotomous notions like religious/secular, religious/political or sacred/profane--especially if these notions are conceptualized in an essentialist manner. A question such as "How is it possible that Alevis declare their deep devotion to secularism while simultaneously referring to secular political issues and symbols of secularism in religious terms?" is based on a dichotomous concept of religion, which is not properly applicable for Alevism. However, astonishment about the Alevi fusion of religious and political themes should not lead us to reflexively view the Alevi phenomenon as a paradox. Instead, it should be taken as starting point for a critical evaluation of the conceptual presumptions underlying out terminology.

Proto-Alevism and Alevi Belief

The roots of Alevism as a sociologically perceivable phenomenon can be traced back to the Babai movement at the beginning of the thirteenth century. (5) The Babai movement was a socio-religious reform movement that, although superficially islamized, preserved elements of pre-Islamic Turkish belief and rites often labeled "shaman." (6) The rural milieu of the Babai was less influenced by the Koran-based Islam of the madrasa than by minor Islamic traditions, often referred to as "heterodox" (7)--such as Ismailism, Batinism, and various concepts of popular Sufi Islam.

In 1240, the Babai led an uprising against the Rumseldjuk Empire motivated by socio-economic tensions and legitimized by messianic claims. From the Babai movement onwards there are traceable historical paths that lead us to modern Alevism. These paths can be discerned not only through their historical actors, but also on the level of ideas. The Bedreddin movement of the early fifteenth century, and the Anatolian Kazilbas milieus that came into being from the late fifteenth century onwards are the most prominent examples of this tradition. All of these groups displayed distinct religious features, which can be summarily categorized as "revolutionary Mahdism." The belief in charismatic leaders as Mahdis explains the religious and political vigor of these groups: (8) once the end of days is believed to be close, the believer is urged to take an activist stance and engage for the case of the Mahdi (Dressler, Die alevitische Religion 45f.).

The history of the Bektasi order can also be integrated into this historical path. (9) The origins of Bektashism are linked to the Babai-movement, too, and the fundamental characteristics of the beliefs as well as the rites of Alevis and Bektasis are very similar. There is evidence that as early as the sixteenth century one branch of the Bektasiye and some Kizilbas-Alevi communities established institutional connections. These connections are still valid, which is one of the reasons why, in modern Turkish parlance, Alevis and Bektasis are often not distinguished. It is thus quite common to speak of the Alevi-Bektasi or of Alevilik-Bektasilik ("Alevism-Bektashism"). (10) In view of these connections and similarities between the two, in this study I will also discuss some Bektasi poems. The formal difference between Alevis and Bektasis emerges in the respective borders of the communities. While descent determines whether one is Alevi, the Bektasiye is a Sufi order, and therefore anyone who fulfills certain conditions can be initiated as a Bektasi. Before the Sufi orders were banned and the lodges closed down by law in 1925, the lodges of the Bektasis tended to be closer to the urban centers than were the rural and peripheral Alevi communities. The Bektasis were therefore more familiar with literate urban culture. Nevertheless, the religious worldview of Bektasis and Alevis is basically the same, even if the Bektasis would generally express that worldview in more sophisticated terms.

The sixteenth century was decisive for the institutionalization and identity formation of both Ottoman Sunnism and Kizilbas-Alevism. The Kizilbas ("Redheads") were adherents of the Safevi order. In 1501, Ismail, the Pir of the order at that time, founded the Safavid Empire in Iran. Motivated by their spiritual bounds to Shah Ismail, whom they venerated as the Mahdi and with whom they wanted to territorially connect, Anatolian Kizilbas undertook several anti-Ottoman uprisings at the beginning of the sixteenth century. (11) The Ottomans succeeded in suppressing all of these uprisings, and toughened their centralization and assimilation politics. The primary motive for the Ottomans' anti-Kizilbas measures was the latter's unwillingness to accept Ottoman political authority. The Kizilbas appeared at best as politically unreliable and at worst as subversive allies of the Ottomans' eastern rival, the Persian Shah. (12) The Ottoman state legitimized its anti-Kizilbas measures through religious arguments: Kizilbas were accused of heresy and even of unbelief. (13)

The Kizilbas responded by separating themselves from non-Kizilbas and seeking shelter from Ottoman authority in remote areas of Anatolia (Dressler, Die alevitische Religion 99-103). In this societal seclusion, the diverse Kizilbas tribesmen, so far mainly united by their allegiance to the Shah, developed ethnic boundaries: commitment to the Safevi Pir was replaced by birth in a Kizilbas community. It is my suggestion that this transformation marks the point from which we should speak of proto-Alevism. These proto-Alevis, to whom the Ottomans kept referring to as Kizilbas, were considered politically unreliable heretics, and were thus never integrated into Ottoman society. (14) It was not until the early twentieth century, during the rule of the Young Turks, that we find individual members of proto-Alevi tribes in anything but the lowest positions in Ottoman institutions (Kieser 283).

Since the religious worldview of proto-Alevism was an important aspect in the development of an Alevi identity, it should be looked at more closely. (15) In the religious worldview of Alevism, the distinction between batin and zahir and the belief in the immanence of God are basic principles (Dressler, Die alevitische Religion 105-23). The term batiniye (Arab.: batiniyya) refers to the adjective batini (Arab.: batini), literally meaning "inwardly" (Hodgson). Historically, the term batiniyya is a designation for the religious worldview of the Ismailiyya, or Sevener Shia, a worldview that was later integrated into and transformed in Islamic mystical discourses. There are indications of Ismaili influence on the aforementioned Babai movement. (16) The batiniyya worldview is based on a distinction between the batin, the "interior," "hidden" and the zahir, the "exterior," "visible." According to the Alevi understanding of batiniye, what is important is the inner meaning of religion. This holds true for the interpretation of everything related to the spiritual path. Through reference to the batin, Alevis play down both the literal meaning of the Koran and the practical religious duties (especially the ritual prayer, the pilgrimage to Mecca, the fasting) devised by orthodox Islam. For Alevis, all these practices are only zahir, and are not of importance for those who long for the "Truth" (Hakk) that is God.

In the Alevi conception of God we find a mixture of religious traditions. At the philosophical edge of the spectrum we come across Ibn al-'Arabi's wahdat al-wugud ("Unity of Existence") and hurufi-teachings. Alevis interpret the wahdat al-wugud, paraphrasing the Alevi dede Mehmet Yaman, as "the unity of God, nature and man." (17) There is no definite distinction between God and his creatures, for God is not transcendent. On the contrary, he manifests himself--and here we come across the Alevi and Bektasi adoption of the hurufi-teachings (18)--in the human being and not in the Koran. The following aphorism, ascribed to the thirteenth century saint Haci Bektas, and widely spread amongst Alevis, is often used by them to explain their understanding of religion: "The greatest book to read is the human being." (19) The divine is also believed to be present in certain stones, springs, trees, and at the tombs of Alevi saints. (20) The veneration of holy places and objects is a widespread popular Turkish practice, and no distinct Alevi feature. Similarly, there are non-Alevi Muslims, be they Sunni or Shii, who adhere to the mystical teachings of the wahdat al-wugud. As in other monotheistic religions, there always has been a tension in Islam between those who conceive God as immanent and those who conceive him as transcendent (Peters 91). Also, the batini worldview is not an exclusively Alevi feature, but has permeated other mystical groups, too. What is characteristically Alevi, however, is their distinctive combination of these practices and beliefs, and the way they are embedded in Alid mythology.

Alevism in the Turkish Republic

It is due to their unhappy relationship with the Ottomans that the Alevis had sympathy for the abolition of the sultanate in 1922 and the caliphate in 1924, the two central institutions symbolizing and legitimizing Ottoman political and religious power. Modern Alevi interpretations of the Turkish War of Independence (1919-1921) stress the Alevi support for Mustafa Kemal, the later Ataturk. (21) Mustafa Kemal organized an Anatolian resistance movement against the European allies, who had occupied vast parts of Anatolia following the Ottoman collapse after World War I. According to the same Alevi accounts, Alevis also supported Kemal Ataturk in the period of comprehensive societal reforms undertaken under his presidency in the newly founded republic. The modern Alevi narrative conceives of Ataturk's reform program--which transformed a theocratic empire into a republican secularist nation-state--as liberation from Ottoman oppression and from religious discrimination. Whereas the historical extent of Alevi support for the War of Independence and for the secularist Kemalist reform program is still a subject of scholarly dispute, (22) there can be no doubt that the Republic in fact improved the situation for the Alevis. Even though the Alevis are still not recognized as a distinct community, they are no longer considered heretics by the state. (23)

In the course of the history of the republic, Alevism underwent far-reaching transformations (Kehl-Bodrogi, "Die 'Wiederfindung';" Vorhoff, Zwischen Glaube; Dressler, Die alevitische Religion 171-76). Economic and societal changes resulting from industrialization initialized a rural exodus in the 1950s and 60s. Large numbers of Anatolian villagers, Alevis and Sunnis, migrated to the urban centers. Hence, the historic physical segregation between Alevis and Sunnis came to an end. At this time, most Turkish citizens came to some arrangement with the nationalist and secularist state ideology of Kemalism, some of them enthusiastically, and most of them pragmatically. Many Alevis went even so far as to sever ties with the religious beliefs and rites of their ancestors. In fact it is very difficult today to find young Alevis who have received even basic information about Alevism from their parents. Alevi traditions depend on oral transmission, and the interruption of this transmission from the 1940s until the late 1980s caused a serious erosion of religious knowledge in the Alevi population. Substituting Turkish-nationalist, Kurdish-nationalist, (24) or socialist identities for their religious and tribal identities, most Alevis underwent a far-reaching process of secularization.

The situation changed after the military coup of 1980. The new military regime responded to the clashes of the late 1970s between the rival groups of the ultra-nationalist right and the left by destroying the left and boosting Islamic institutions as a bulwark against them. Islamic education in public schools and Islamic institutions in general received financial and ideological support never seen before. Religious symbols entered the public sphere and religious language became part of public discourse to an unprecedented degree. (25) For many Alevis, this situation precipitated a severe identity crisis. The political left, with which many of the younger generation had identified themselves, was destroyed. The idea of socialism was losing its pervasiveness, a trend accelerated by the erosion of socialist regimes toward the end of the 1980s. But unlike their former political counterparts, the entirely Sunni ultra-nationalist movement, Alevis no longer had a religion, to which to turn, since the institutions of traditional Alevism were almost entirely eroded. A longing for rediscovery of Alevism emerged, and in the late 1980s and 1990s Turkey witnessed the so-called coming-out of the Alevi community (Kehl-Bodrogi, "Die 'Wiederfindung'"). Alevi actors entered the public sphere claiming their difference from Sunni Turks and demanding to be acknowledged by the state and the public. Alevis embarked on a process of rapid organization and institution building, (26) and founded associations dedicated to the preservation and spread of Alevi culture. (27) However, the Alevi institution--building process did not merely organize Alevi communities, but was also accompanied by processes of differentiation--a variety of Alevi discourses developed, differing in the way they formulated political, religious and ethnic cultural identities. (28)

Alevi Poetry

The transformations that Alevism underwent in the last century are reflected in Alevi poetry, the traditional medium of Alevi knowledge. Since traditional Alevi culture is an oral culture, orally transmitted tales, songs, and poems were the very means by which it was remembered, interpreted and thus constantly redefined. I consider poems to be "Alevi," when they are written by authors considering themselves "Alevi," and when these authors refer to specific Alevi symbols and topics.

When speaking of Alevi poetry we mainly speak about the asik (also: ozan), who can be compared with the Celtic bard, the French troubadour, or the German minnesinger (Reinhard, "Die Musik der Alewiten" 200). The asik institution is one of the most important institutions in Alevism (Kaya; Reinhard/De Oliveira Pinto; Duygulu). When the asik sings, usually accompanying himself on the saz (a long-necked lute), (29) he interprets not only his own poems, but also the poems of other asiks, past and contemporary. His repertoire may comprise epic tales, songs of love and devotion, religious hymns, as well as social and political critiques.

The term asik has been used in Anatolia at least since the fifteenth century. It stems from the mystical tradition of Islam, and means literally "the one in love [with God]." The mystical quest of the asik distinguishes him from an ordinary sair ("poet") (Koprulu 1: 37). The term ozan is older, going back to the central Asian Turkish Shaman tradition of the ninth/tenth century (Reinhard, "Die Musik der Alewiten." 200). However, it seems that asik, at least from the sixteenth century onwards, was the common technical term for the Anatolian tradition of minstrelsy (Koprulu 1: 37-39). The term ozan, or halk ozani ("ozan of the people") had a revival in the last century when it became popular again, first amongst bards with secular agendas, such as nationalist or leftist ideologies. Notwithstanding the distinct history of the terms asik and ozan, the two expressions are nowadays often used as if they were mutually interchangeable. The prevalent self-description however, is still asik; if the general term sair ("poet") is used at all, then it is done so with the definite attribute "Alevi." Accordingly, asiks would usually not use the general designation siir ("poem"), but refer to their songs using more particular notions depending on form and style, such as turku, deyis, or nefes. (30)

The asik tradition combines Turkic epic story telling with a knowledge of popular Sufism (Kaya 35). It has to be noted that the asik tradition is not particular to Alevism, but is a wider phenomenon of rural Turkish culture, with regional centers in Eastern Turkey. (31) Generally, however, both in numbers and in social significance, asiks are much more prominent amongst Alevis than amongst Sunnis. Gloria Clarke (145f.) estimates that around 90% of the Anatolian asik have an Alevi background. The asik institution is part of the heritage of popular Turkish culture. While it is constitutive for Alevism, it has no religious meaning for Sunnism. Apart from a few distinct religious themes that are particular to either Sunnism or Alevism, the range of topics of Alevi and Sunni asiks is basically the same, including shared influences of Sufism. The asik tradition appears as a remnant of pre-modern times that gives us a sense of how the present-day cultural borders between Sunnis and Alevis cannot always have existed. (32)

In Alevism, the asik "in addition to being a poet, carrier of news, ideas and sometimes of subversive attitudes, is also guardian of the sacred texts passed on through oral transmission" (Clarke 148). The asik accompanies Alevism's most important religious ceremony, the "feast of communion" (ayn-i cem or cem). Singing religious hymns (the so-called nefes or deyis) while playing the saz in the cem requires not only musical but also religious knowledge, and is a function invested with high social prestige. Bedri Noyan (33) (Butun Yonleriyle 18) equates the religious meaning of the performance of the nefes during the cem ceremony (34) with the meaning of the recitation of the Koran for Sunni Muslims.

While it is one of the primary functions of the dede, who is the charismatic religious leader of an Alevi community, to directly give Alevis religious education and introduce them into the mystical way and into ritual practices, it is one of the primary functions of the asik, to pass on the Alevis' epic traditions and mystical knowledge by chanting poems. (35) Without the asik institution, many of the Alevi traditions would have been lost in the almost complete illiterate context of (proto-)Alevism. Since the asik is not only a transmitter of poems but also the author of new poems, he has the creative power to reinterpret the tradition. According to tradition, an asik has to be initiated, either directly by an acknowledged asik, or in a dream by an already departed asik, an Alevi saint, or even God himself (Kaya 40-86; Erdener 53-60). This initiation provides the asik with religious authority.

Traditional topics of Alevi poems comprise religious instructions, iteration of Alevi beliefs, as well as "profane" topics like love, nature, and political themes such as earlier Kizilbas-Alevi uprisings or complaints about the injustice perpetrated by the respective hegemonic political powers. (36) These topics can be presented in different tropes, e.g. drama, tragedy, eulogy, comedy, satire, or diatribe. (37) Religious themes of asik poetry comprise the adoration of the twelve Imams also revered by the Twelver-Shia--especially Ali, the rules of the spiritual path, the relationship between the spiritual guide (mursid) and his disciple (murid), as well as ethical instructions. While Alevi poetry does not treat these themes in as sophisticated a way as, for example, the closely related Bektasi poetry, (38) the emotive force of the poems is nonetheless profound.

With respect to the topics he chooses, the asik is relatively autonomous. However, he will consider the desires and the mood of his audience. Since the asik tradition is mainly a rural tradition, the traditional audience is made up of peasants. Traditional places for performances were coffeehouses or private homes. The asik performs in interaction with his audience, and we can describe this performance as a collective memorization of epic material, or as a collective reassurance of matters of cultural knowledge and practice. Of course, when discussing matters of "originality," one always has to take into account that oral traditions are often to some extent transferred by "composition in performance." Texts can change from performance to performance. But as Natalie Moyle, who conducted extensive fieldwork amongst Anatolian asik, has pointed out, the Turkish asik displays hot only the technique of "composition in performance" but has also a strongly developed "technique of remembrance" (Moyle 144). (39) Thus, the asik is both involved in conserving tradition, as well as in re-composing it.

In the twentieth century, both Sunni and Alevi asik culture became widely secularized. (40) The transformations underwent by Alevism in the course of the twentieth century--urbanization, secularization, and politicization--had a deep impact on the Alevi asik tradition (Zelyut 41f.). (41) "Modern" Alevi poetry discovered new, "profane" topics, mainly economic, social, and political ones (Reinhard/De Oliveira Pinto 176f.). Some of the Alevi bards, for example Asik Veysel (1894-1973), the most popular Alevi asik of the twentieth century, subscribed extensively to the Kemalist nation-state project, and neglected traditional Alevi topics (Ozmen 5: 17f.). The almost total surrender to the state and its ideology provoked severe criticism from traditionally oriented Alevis (Zelyut 41). (42) Other Alevi bards were very critical observers of the development of the Turkish society. (43) While Alevi asik differ as to how far their loyalty should be submitted to the needs of the state and its ideology, they nevertheless share a general socio-critical attitude, expressed in poems against economic and social injustice.

The transformations of the twentieth century did not only affect the thematic scope of the asik-poems. The traditional setting of the performance of the asik underwent changes, which were equally wide-ranging. Traditionally the asik-performance was a public event, be it at the cem ceremony, at the teahouse or a private gathering. Asiks traditionally used to travel throughout the countryside, performing their art and earning a living from donations. Today such traveling asiks are rare. The erosion of traditional village life and the spread of radio and television diminished their audience--on the other hand, the new media opened new possibilities to reach a broader audience. In the course of this development, even the religious hymns were secularized. The performance of the nefes, traditionally severely restricted to the cem ceremony, (44) now entered new social spaces. The nefes is today even used as entertainment music and performed at live concerts. (45) The asik-tradition had to adapt itself to contemporary cultural norms and settings in order to survive.

Some popular asiks perform in concert halls and sell CDs. These professionals, like Arif Sag and Ozan Sahturna [Dumlupinar], address broader audiences, which transgress traditional Alevi boundaries. (46) They tend to define themselves in the first place by reference to universal ideals like humanism, social justice and tolerance and only secondarily along cultural-religious lines as Alevis. If they refer directly to Alevism and perform traditional Alevi songs, they usually will interpret them in the framework of these universal ideas and not as something peculiar to Alevism. But only a few can make their living this way. Most asiks nowadays will have an ordinary job in order to support themselves. However, every asik needs an audience. Many use modern means, such as publishing collections of their poems.

Investigating modern Alevi poetry, we face a wide range of different types of poems both in respect to form (rhyme pattern and metre) and content. (47) The scope ranges from the religious hymns sung by the initiated asik, which are subject to firm formal criteria, topic, structure of the poem, and acceptance by the audience, to ordinary poetry beyond formal criteria written by Alevi laymen. This article aims to contribute to the de-codification of the contents of modern Alevi poetry, which have not yet been the object of systematic scientific inquiry.

Political Topics in Modern Alevi Poetry

In view of my critique of a dichotomous conception of religion, I should clarify what I mean when I talk about religious and political topics or symbols in Alevi poetry. I classify as "religious" all those topics and symbols to which Alevis would give meaning that non-Alevis would not, and which are integrated into the Alevi narrative. As non-religious, merely "political," I categorize topics and symbols, which are equally understandable for both Alevis and non-Alevis, and make no references to the Alevi narrative. According to this distinction the border between a religious and a political conceptualization depends on the meaning attributed to the respective event or symbol. Since the exclusiveness or inclusiveness of a particular conceptualization is a matter of perspective, the borders between religious and political meaning are necessarily dynamic and mutable. Thus, the same theme might occur as "religiously" framed in one context, and as "only" politically framed in another. Hence I argue that we need a discursive, non-essentialist conception of the dimensions of the religious and the political in order to understand what happens when these dimensions fuse.

The distinction I draw between religious and political symbols and topics is a heuristic distinction. It is an etic distinction, not to be confused with emic terms. Bearing that in mind, I categorize modern Alevi poems as follows:

1) Poems referring to political issues without any notions bearing distinct Alevi meaning.

2) Poems referring to political issues which use terms with a distinct Alevi meaning or are written from a clearly Alevi point of view, but do not totally embed these issues in a religious frame.

3) Poems referring to political issues, which are completely embedded in an Alevi setting.

For the purpose of this article I will exclusively focus on the latter two categories. Those poems, which mix religious and political subjects, can be distinguished according to the political themes on which they comment. The themes include (a) the Turkish War of Independence, (b) the shutting down of the Bektasi lodges and the official dissolution of the order in 1925, (c) veneration of Kemal Ataturk, the symbol of the secular and nationalist order of the new republic, (d) Kemalism as the ideology of modern Turkish society, (e) incidents illustrating the ongoing suffering of the Alevis from religious intolerance and discriminatory politics, (f) religiously motivated attacks against Alevis, and (g) the societal and political turbulences of the 1960s and 1970s. The poems will be presented in the first instance by theme and secondarily according to the chronology of their composition. Academic and popular collections of poems, as well as anthologies published by the authors themselves, form the main source for this study. In addition I incorporated material from Alevi journals, which publish poems of renowned asiks as well as of ordinary Alevis.

The melting of political and religious themes in Alevi poetry is not a purely modern phenomenon. There is a long tradition of (proto-)Alevi poetry dealing with political injustice and discrimination. It goes back to the 16th century, epitomized in the poems of Pir Sultan Abdal, a Kizilbas asik who openly offended Ottoman authority and preached allegiance with the Safavids (Jansky; Sumer 69f.). We find a fusion of political and religious themes not only in Alevi, but also in some examples of the closely related Bektasi poetry. An example of pre twentieth-century Bektasi poetry along these lines is a poem of a certain Hakki, (48) which refers to the closing down of the Bektasi lodges in 1826. (49) The poem, written in the year of the incident, accuses the "tribe of Yezid" of the destruction of the lodges and the killing of Bektasi dervishes. In using the designation "Yezid," Hakki invokes the martyrdom of Ali's son, the third Shiite Imam Husein, and his adherents who were cruelly killed by the troops of the Umayyad caliph, Yezid, at Kerbela in 680. This event is a cornerstone of the Shiite founding myth. Although they are far from being "orthodox" Shiis, Alevis and Bektasis recall these Shii myths in their narratives and myths, and thus belong to the broader community of the adherents of Ali and his descendents. Accusing the Ottomans of "Yezidism" (Yezitlik), the poem of Hakki sets the political event of 1826 in a longer chain of suffering that goes back to the mythical roots of the community.

The War of Independence and the Early Years of the Republic

The following poem deals with the War of Independence. It is written some sixty years after the event and is an example of modern Alevi history narration. Its author is the asik Adil Ali Atalay, who also uses the pen name "Vaktidolu." (50) The poem, most probably written in 1981, is entitled "The Epos of the Liberation" (Kurtulus Destani) and consists of 33 quatrains, from which I chose the following stanzas (italics are mine):

   It is grievous to be a prisoner in my own country,
   My mother cried out, did you hear it, sister?
   The Mahdi appeared and put the crown (52) on his head,
   All together they were hurrying as if a revolution had
      broken out.

   We were invincible, we became one and complete,
   We were undividable, we were together with Ata[turk], (53)
   Not as captives, if we had died we would have been free,
   The brave men said [this is] the time and place, and [they]
      became heroes. (54)

   To hand over the homeland gave us grief,
   Voluntarily brothers and sisters came together,
   A savior has been awaited,
   He became manifest for us, as if [sent] from God.

   Obviously we first hit the traitors,
   We drove the seven headed dragon (55) out of the fatherland,
   We saw a Lion drawing the Zulfikar, (56)
   For he became the remedy for all suffering.

   Just as the sun was completely setting, it rose again,
   Equal to Ataturk none ever came to the world.
   If I would fill [it into] books, it would not fit into three, rive,
   He became the fate of the Turkish nation.

   Our Ata[turk] said: "Let slavery end"!,
   "Let the enemy go [back] the way he came!,"
   "Let freedom smoke in the extinguished hearths!,"
   The hearths burned, his word became the principle. (57)

On the surface, the poem presents the epos of the War of Liberation, highlighting the role of Kemal Ataturk. If we do not recognize certain metaphors used in it, then we might consider the narrated story as quite typical; (58) in short: Kemal Ataturk appeared at a time when there seemed to be no hope for an independent Turkish nation; he achieved an incredible feat by organizing an independence movement, uniting the Turks, and consequently expelling the occupying forces. The poem has no explicitly religious frame. It is written as epos (destan), and not as a religious hymn (nefes). In some verses the poem gives us the impression of addressing all Turks. But elsewhere Atalay uses Alevi terms and embeds Ataturk in typical Alevi contexts. He calls Ataturk the "Mahdi." The Mahdi is the Messiah, whom Muslims expect to appear close to the end of days to restore justice on Earth and prepare the world for the Day of Judgment. Belief in the Mahdi is an essential part of the Shiite creed, and also very prominent in Alevism. With the appearance of the Mahdi, Alevis associate restoration of justice and end of suffering. In the (proto-)Alevi tradition, the expectation of the Mahdi shows a continuity from the thirteenth century onward. (59) On the one hand, Atalay seems to address the theme of the Mahdi to the whole Turkish nation. But on the other hand he uses metaphors which bear specific Alevi meaning. In the terminology of Alevism-Bektashism "to put on the tac" means being initiated into the order of the Bektasiye. (60) As indicated, also the meydan and the meydan eri are terms of specific Alevi-Bektasi significance, pointing to the celebration of the cem ceremony. Ataturk is further described as the "Lion, drawing the Zulfikar," that is Ali. (61) Finally, in the last verse quoted, we have the notions of ocak ("hearth") and erkan ("principle, rule, order"). In Alevism ocak is a technical terminus for diverse holy lineages, which are believed to go back to one of the twelve Imams or other important Alevi saints. (62) Erkan in Alevism and Bektashism is a common term for the rules of the spiritual path. Considering these underlying associations, the last two verses display a meaning beyond the literal understanding: after a period, in which the Alevi community (symbolized by the hearth) was almost extinguished, Ataturk vitalized it again and his word became the principle. Although this interpretation is probably somewhat excessive, it nevertheless has to be assumed that Atalay is aware of it. Summarizing the interpretation of the poem we can say that Atalay, although he also refers to commonly accepted themes of the "Ataturk story," perceives Ataturk from an Alevi point of view: he gives Ataturk religious meaning by calling him the expected Mahdi and associating him with religious symbols of Alevism.

In Bektasi poetry, too, we find examples for a religious glorification of Ataturk. One is the following poem of Asim Kemter Dervis of Izmir, (63) written in 1922. It is situated subsequent to the Turkish reconquest of Izmir from the Greeks in early September 1922, a landmark of the Turkish War of Independence:

   Oh heart, this is such an utmost magical, most amazing
      adventure,
   Praise be to God, this is the perfect [divine] glory and
      blessing of Mustafa.

   [This is] truly the bloody sword that confused the enemy,
   This is Ali el-Murteza, spiritual aid for him.

   How fast did he expel the Greek from the fatherland in
      one moment,
   The world stands still in perplexity, this is an astonishing
      lesson.

   He saved this oppressed nation from all the chains of slavery,
   This is the hero of God who conducts holy conquests in a
      way that moves the heart.

   This leader is the revered crown of the world of Islam,
   This is the decree of rate for those enemies who were
      after him.

   Today, the sun of independence, O Asim, rose over the
      world of Islam,
   and showed its fair face; what a beautiful beloved.

   ... This is just a prayer for Kemal Pasa [who is] of pure
      character. (64)

The poem is called "History Hymn" (Tarih Nefes), an astonishing title considering the aforementioned exclusive use of the term nefes for religious poems. The poem is an appraisal of the Pasa Mustafa Kemal [Ataturk], the leader of the Turkish War of Independence. We can distinguish several layers of meaning. In terms of the historical event, we are informed about the military victory over the Greeks and their expulsion from the fatherland that is equalized with independence. Beyond providing us with historical information, the poem is dedicated to the one deemed responsible for this glorious victory: Mustafa Kemal Pasa. He appears as the syntactical subject in nearly all strophes. Mentioned, mostly indirectly, in all of the strophes except the sixth, (65) he is referred to by different attributes and only in the very last verse called by his actual name: Kemal Pasa. This last strophe is the final evidence that Mustafa Kemal is the one referred to throughout the poem. In the first verse he is called kemal-i nur-u feyz-i Mustafa, literally translated as "the perfect [divine] glory and blessing of Mustafa." This verse is playing with religious metaphors. The expression kemal-i nur resembles the expression nur-i ilahi, "the divine glory," and the term feyz-i Mustafa the expression feyz-i ilahi, "divine blessing." Mustafa, "the praised one," is a very common appelation for Muhammad, the prophet of Islam. Therefore one might, at first glance, guess that the subject here is Muhammad. But the expression comprises at the same time both of the names of the leader of the Independence Movement, Kemal and Mustafa. The second strophe states that "he" is supported by Ali-yyel-Murtaza, the Imam Ali, among Alevis and Bektasis commonly honored as the murtaza, "the approved one." This is the only reference in the poem that alludes to a Shiite background. In the fifth strophe he is called "the crown of Islam." The last verse defines the poem as a prayer (dua) for Kemal Pasa. The terminology used is unmistakably Islamic and bestows on both the military victory and the person of Mustafa Kemal religious significance transcending both time and location. This poem of the Bektasi Asim Kemter was written towards the end of the War of Independence. It is an outstanding example of the religiously framed approval that Kemal Ataturk received at least from some of the Turkish Bektasis. While the recent work of Hulya Kucuk shows that not all Bektasis and Alevis supported the War of Liberation--and members of both groups even actively opposed Mustafa Kemal--this does not alter the fact that those Turks who conceive of Kemal Ataturk in religious terms are mostly of Alevi or Bektasi background. (66)

In contrast to the poems of Asim Kemter and Adil Atalay, other Alevi and Bektasi poems, while also referring to political incidents and developments from the viewpoint of their community, do not bestow them with religious meaning. An example is the undated poem of the Bektasi Neyzen Tevfik Kolayli from Bodrum (1876-1953), entitled "The First Advice to the Turk" (Turk'e Birinci Ogut), (67) that addresses itself to the newborn Turkish nation, praising it for what it has achieved, and illustrating its support by God. It condemns the injustice of Ottoman rule, which is described as rooted in religious intolerance, dividing the people in believers and unbelievers the latter designation obviously referring to the Alevis. Kolayli advises "the Turk" not to follow the path of the Ottomans by continuing a policy of religious discrimination. But unlike Asim Kemter and Atalay he adds no religious significance to his report. The same is true for a poem by the Alevi Zileli Asik Zefil Necmi (1860-1933) that expresses grievances about the closure of the lodges in 1925.68 These examples show us that we should not assume that Alevis or Bektasis necessarily attribute religious meaning to political topics.

The Period of Ideological Polarization: The 1970s

Turkey's political climate of the 1960s and even more so of the 1970s can be characterized in terms of a continuing polarization between ultra-nationalist Turkist and leftist ideologies. (69) On the one side of the political arena, the militant right, almost completely Sunni, was bound together mainly by extremely nationalist and anti-leftist ideas, and considered Alevis as heretics. It was a quite common practice amongst the right to polemicize against "the three K's," that is the Kizilbas, the Kurds and the Communists (Bumke 544). In the chauvinistic discourse these three attributions designated the religious, ethnic and political enemy. Indeed, the Alevis overwhelmingly tended to the left, for the most part replacing their religious identity with the universalistic identity conceptions offered by leftist ideologies, namely socialism and Marxism (Bumke 545). If Alevism was used as a point of reference at all, it was mostly to legitimize leftist ideologies. (70) This is even truer for Alevis with a Kurdish background. The secularized interpretation of the Kerbela narrative is an example for this general trend. The martyrs of Kerbela were now conceived of not as religious but political victims, and compared with the leftist victims of the militant clashes between left and right (Melikoff "Le probleme Bektasi-Alevi," 29; Bumke 544). This is illustrated in the following poem by Asik Nesimi, (71) which is dedicated to three "revolutionaries" executed on May 6, 1972:

   Cry, my heart, cry endlessly
   Today, May 6, 1972 ...
   Who knows about Kerbela, also knows about this day,
   In each epoch, true people like them are dying
   Every day is May 6, every day is Kerbela
   Ah! The cruelty of the tyrant has not ended yet! (72)

The poem is an example of the secularization of the Kerbela myth by relating it to contemporary experience. But this is not a sufficient interpretation. The use of symbols stemming from a religious imaginary attempts to legitimize the positions adopted. By placing the struggle of the 1970s in a continuum which has its starting point in a mythos deeply rooted in the collective memory of the Alevi milieu, the sacrifices of this struggle attain a trans-historical meaning. Therefore one can argue that with the secularization of the Kerbela theme, the secular ideologies are in turn sanctified by their inclusion into the religious narrative. (73)

Updating the Kerbela Memory: The Continuing Chain of Suffering

The Kerbela theme resurfaced after the arson attack in Sivas on June 2nd 1993. Thirty-five people-most of them Alevi-died after a fanatic mob of militant Sunnis set fire to a hotel that hosted guests of the annual festival honoring the Alevi poet Pir Sultan Abdal. Local security forces watched the horrific massacre without intervening (Vorhoff, Zwischen Glaube 156). The incident naturally had a profound effect on the Alevis, and accelerated the Alevi organization building process (Kehl-Bodrogi, "Prozesse ethnisch-sprachlicher" 143). As I will show through the following poems, how Alevis situated the Sivas incident was very different from how they had situated the conflicts in the 1970s. Alevism was now in a process of religious reorientation. Interpretations of Alevism in terms of leftist ideological categories dominant in the 1970s had already lost their significance and had become marginalized. In his poem "Hey Bloody Yezid" (Ey Kanli Yezit), the Alevi asik Fevzi Aslan portrays Alevi history as an ongoing chain of suffering, exemplified by the Sivas event.

   Do you read the Holy Koran?
   Show the place, where there is [something said about]
      burning men!
   Don't leave my question without an answer!
   Why are you chasing [us], you bloody Yezid?

   The incident set the world in a state of turmoil,
   Wasn't there a military regiment in Sivas?
   People were burned and there was dancing,
   Why are you chasing [us], you bloody Yezid?

   Asik Fevzi follows the way of the brave,
   I always keep it in my mind and cannot banish it from my
      tongue,
   When the Imam Mahdi once will appear,
   Then we will see what is going to happen, hey bloody Yezid! (74)

Again we have the notion of Yezid symbolizing the enemy of the Alevis, this time entrenched in the analogy of the Kerbela and Sivas incidents. Alevis use the label "Yezid" to depict the "fanatic Sunni," intolerant and aggressive. The negative definition of the "Other" simultaneously serves to define the "We":

   Such a binary opposition runs through the whole depiction
   of Alevi history, as Alevis "imagine" it from the days of the
   Prophet Muhammad up to contemporary Turkish society ...
   History is presented as the endless repetition of one pattern:
   the good, the righteous and innocent against the evil, the
   vain, and the cruel. (Vorhoff, "'Let's Reclaim'" 245f.)

Fevzi Aslan further stresses the religious dimension of the Sivas incident by his reference to the Mahdi, providing the incident with chiliastic significance. Thus, the incident of Sivas becomes a new chain in the ongoing narrative of Alevi suffering that is believed to ultimately end with the appearance of the Mahdi. The collective Alevi remembrance of their suffering in the past is affirmed by devastating experiences in the present and ultimately can only be endured by means of the belief in a better future, which is articulated in the expectation of the Mahdi.

The following strophe is part of the poem "They Burned in Sivas" (Yandi Sivasta), composed by the Alevi asik Muharrem Yazicioglu (75) only one week after the Sivas incident. It points to the parallels between Kerbela and Sivas even more explicitly. The strophe further draws an analogy to the destiny of the Kizilbas poet Pir Sultan Abdal. According to the Alevi narration the latter was executed by the Ottomans, here epitomized in the motif of the "tyrannical Pasha." (76)

   For centuries the enemies of mankind,
   The massacre of Kerbela happened [again] in Sivas,
   As [did] the tyrannical pasha with Pir Sultan [Abdal],
   The bards and writers burnt in Sivas. (77)

Kemal Ataturk: Symbol of Kemalism and Modern Alevi Mahdi

The following poem of Yazicioglu was written in reaction to an arson attack against a building of the "Association for Kemalist Thinking" in February 1994, the year after Sivas. It draws analogies between attacks on Kemalism, the rise of political Islam, the decline of Kemalist consciousness, and attacks against Alevis. It ends with an urgent appeal to the reader, encouraging him to defend the Kemalist principle of Laicism:

   The supporter of the sharia seduces in the name of religion,
   The reactionaries extinguish many hearths,
   They intimidate the Kemalist thinking,
   Democracy does not fit into Turkey.

   Oh lord, east and west are bloody,
   The Arabs drag the country into darkness,
   If laicism would go, there will be devastation,
   Democracy does not fit into Turkey.

   The words and principles of Ataturk,
   One after the other was plucked out of its link,
   His country is buried in darkness,
   Democracy does not fit into Turkey.

   The incident of Kerbela cut wounds,
   Corum, Maras and Sivas overtook it,
   What kind of Islam is this, the ones who heard were marveling,
   Democracy does not fit into Turkey.

   They bum people in anticipation of the paradise,
   The [state] ministers (78) are watching without shame,
   Those friends burning in Sivas are unforgettable,
   Democracy does not fit into Turkey.

   Yazicioglu, from the tongue of the religious fanatic,
   From the hands of the reactionary he snatches the country,
   Let's not astray from the path of Laicism,
   Democracy does not fit into Turkey. (79)

The primary motive of Yazicioglu is to highlight and severely condemn the rise of militant Sunnism. The poem blames militant Sunnis for threatening Kemalism and especially Laicism, attacking Alevis, and finally preventing Turkey from becoming a democracy. Yazicioglu depicts an antagonistic confrontation. The adherents of the one side are described as "sharia-supporters," "reactionaries," "religious fanatics" and "Arabs"--the last designation referring to narrow minded, reactionary Sunnis. Though not as clearly named, it is obvious that the other side represents the "good guys," the "We." We learn that this side (the "We") represents Kemalism, Laicism, and democracy, in short those principles the "Others" are accused of sabotaging. Linking the events of Corum, Maras (80) and Sivas with Kerbela, Yazicioglu embeds these recent incidents into the Alevi narrative, thereby updating and reinforcing it. "The words and principles of Ataturk," which symbolize the laic order, are conceived as severely threatened.

The conceptualization of Kemal Ataturk is the single most telling example of the religious embedding of political symbols in Alevi poetry. Ataturk is the very symbol of Kemalism and its basic principles, Turkish Nationalism (milliyetcilik), Turkish Laicism (laiklik), and Republicanism (cumhuriyetcilik). Kemalist guiding metaphors provide the frame for most of the common portrayals of Ataturk. The "Father of the Turks" (Ataturk) is glorified for his military and political achievements. (81) The veneration Ataturk receives from Alevis substantially exceeds these mere political aspects. The following poem of asik Ali Izzet 0zkan (1902-1981) from Sivas was written in the context of the political trouble in Turkey that preceded the first coup d'etat in 1960. The poem is said to be composed on March 27, 1960, that is exactly 2 months before the coup d'etat of May 27.82 It is entitled "Call for Ataturk" (Ataturk'e Cagiris).

   Ataturk, hero of the last days,
   Your Turkey's condition got bad, come!
   The country is in the hands of discord and rebellion,
   Brothers became the enemies of brothers, come!

   Those whose sheikh is a Satan, those who are Satan
      themselves, multiplied,
   Hell rose again, what happened [to] paradise?
   Everything goes up in price, only the prayer (83) remains,
   The word of the liar became faith, come!

   The moon was the crown on your sun-head, my Ata[turk],
   The world bowed before you, my Ata[turk],
   The heavenly hosts stand behind you,
   The Antichrist appeared, the end of time has arrived, come!

   The fatherland is in the state of an earthquake,
   The ministers [of state] got on the horses of Satan,
   The denial of the constitution became fashionable, come!

   Tell [to] my magnificent Lord, let him send the Mahdi,
   Let him come together with Ali and Battal Gazi, (84)
   Let break the hands of those who throw stones after you,
   The careless and ignorant ones are repentant, come!

   The soul (85) Ali Izzet Ozkan is waiting for you,
   The abandoned fatherland, the khan are waiting for you,
   Distinguished remarkable glory is waiting for you,
   The unbeliever is guest in our country, come! (86)

The poem draws a devastating picture of Turkey's situation in the late 1960s, the last days of the conservative Democrat Party's rule. (87) It refers to the increasing inflation, and to the government's establishment of an anti-opposition investigatory commission that was accused of conflicting with the constitution. The country is described as in "disorder and rebellion," "in the state of an earthquake," its people have fallen out with each other, the ministers of state subscribe to Satan, the fatherland is abandoned. The more general descriptions of the country's situation are reminiscent of popular illustrations of the period immediately before Kemal Ataturk started to organize the National Resistance Movement in the aftermath of World War I. Once more the fatherland is in the hand of the Unbelievers, and again, Ataturk is perceived as the savior.

Of course there are also many non-Alevi Kemalist poems, which complain about Turkey going astray and address Kemal Ataturk, imploring him to save the country. (88) These poems can be regarded as civil religious, but they usually would not incorporate Ataturk into the narrative of a specific religious community, as the poem of Ozkan does. In his description of Ataturk, Ozkan extensively uses religious metaphors. Moon and sun, for example, are in Alevi and Bektasi terminology metaphors for Ali and Muhammad. In the religious worldview of the Alevis and Bektasis, Ali and Muhammad are regarded as complementary symbols representing different aspects of the truth. While Muhammad represents the "outer," "visible" (zahiri) and Ali the "inner," "hidden" (batini) truth, both are divine manifestations. (89) The central attribute of Ataturk in the poem, however, is that he is the Mahdi. Ozkan draws a picture of Turkey, which shows an apocalyptic scenario: disorder between the people, "hell rose again," references to Satan and to the Antichrist, the apocalyptic figure who is believed to precede the appearance of the Mahdi at the end of days. Since Ataturk is called "the hero of the last days," he must be the Mahdi whom God is asked to send. Ataturk is repeatedly asked to "come," expel the "enemies," the "unbelievers," in short to fulfill the Mahdi's messianic duty of defeating the Antichrist and establishing order and justice.

A further astonishing aspect of the poem is the way the author uses the term kafir ("unbeliever"). The term is an indispensable part of Islamic apologetic discourse. In the context of this Alevi poem, the notion is remarkable for several reasons. First, due to the power relations in Turkish religio-political discourse, the idea that an Alevi defines "unbelievers" appears as rather unlikely. Even in modern Turkey there are still many Sunni Muslims who accuse Alevis of being heretics and "unbelievers." If by kafir Ozkan means fanatic Sunni Muslims, then he has tacitly converted the defensive position into an aggressive one. However, the whole poem draws no clear distinction between political and religious issues and the notion of kafir could be politically understood as referring to those who led Turkey into chaos. It is also possible that the "unbeliever, who is guest in our country" is an allusion to the increasing American influence on Turkish politics, and Turkey's increasing dependency on foreign aid. (90)

Another typical Alevi conceptualization of Ataturk is connecting him with Haci Bektas Veli who is the eponym of the Bektasi order and the Alevi patron saint together with Ali. There are plenty of Alevi poems, which draw analogies between Ataturk and Haci Bektas. (91) Reference points for these analogies are the ideas of Laicism, equality of the sexes and classes, democracy, social justice, patriotism (92) and humanism. It is often difficult to judge whether the parallels posited between Ataturk and Haci Bektas are meant metaphorically or literally. (93) One has to know that the Alevis believe in tenasuh or metempsychosis, the passing of the soul after death into another body. The poems that connect Ataturk and Haci Bektas can be interpreted in two directions: first, as secularizing interpretations of Haci Bektas achieved by correlating him with modern ideas and with Ataturk; second, as a sanctification of Ataturk by equating him with one of the most important Alevi saints, thereby integrating him into the Alevi narrative. (94)

Laicism

We already became aware of the Alevis' deep inclination towards Kemalism and especially Laicism. Although the principle of Laicism, laiklik, has been anchored in all of the Turkish constitutions since 1937, there is no singular official definition of Laicism available. (95) In the traditional Kemalist view, which still plays a powerful role in the Turkish political discourse, laiklik is interpreted as separation between religion and politics and, at the same time, state control over religion. The founding fathers of the republic saw religion as one of the main threats for their ambitious modernization project. Ataturk himself--although his personal stand towards religion is still a subject of scholarly dispute (Laut)--forcefully advocated the restriction of religion to the private sphere. As mentioned earlier, the secularization process in the early republic provided the Alevis for the first time with the possibility to participate actively in public life. From the 1950s, Turkey underwent a nearly constant development towards a limited reopening of public space and public discourse for religion, a development warily observed by traditional secularists, and especially Alevis. Alevis perceive the rise of public (Sunni) Islamic consciousness and institutions as a direct threat. Their suspicion of Sunni Muslims, especially those who seek political power with a religiously motivated agenda, is reaffirmed by every attack against Alevis supposedly conducted by radical Sunnis. Alevis thus staunchly advocate Laicism and react very sharply against the use of religious imagery in political agendas. They see the maintenance of Laicism as a precondition for their security and for their religious freedom. Indeed, Alevis regularly present Laicism as an outcome of Alevi philosophy. (96) As a result of this perceived intrinsic link between Laicism and Alevi thought, for some Alevis, laiklik attains an almost "religious" quality. The connection between Laicism and the "Alevi path" is illustrated in the following two poems:

   We are Alevis, we don't know treason,
   Laicism goes through our path,
   I am initiated, (97) appropriate for God,
   I am Alevi, I won't go astray from the way to Truth. (98)

   Let our path always be laic,
   The honorable Ataturk is the one we admire,
   Let our beautiful country go straight ahead,
   Let our nation open a new period and go. (99)

Whereas the first poem is dominated by religious references (abdest = initiation, Tanri =God, Hak = Truth/God), the second poem is dominated by references to the nation (Ataturk, yurdumuz = our country, milletimiz = our nation). From their distinct angles they both relate Laicism to the Alevi path.

The following poem of "Ekberi" Aliekber Gulbastir (bore 1940) from the province Malatya shows the Alevis' deep suspicion of Sunni Islam and illustrates how the fear of religious fanaticism and the commitment to Laicism are connected:

   They added the ritual prayer to politics,
   They are performing the prayer in the streets,
   They used a trick like Muaviye, (100)
   They are attacking the principle of Laicism.

   I know that you are from end to end a cheating,
   [I wish] you'll come to the sword of Ataturk.

   What kind of creatures [are they], they cannot get enough blood,
   A person with belief would not be after someone's life,
   From the founding of the republic until now,
   The fanatics are getting more and more furious and rabid.

   Don't think that your saliva will go on flowing,
   [I wish] you'll come to the sword of Ataturk.

   The law of Ataturk will stick,
   I'm not looking optimistically to your end,
   These games are the games of the Umayyad,
   They are finding covering for every trick.

   [I wish] that you are slapped by the constitution,
   [I wish] you'll come to the sword of Ataturk.

   Your aim was to pull down Laicism,
   You increased your harem up to nine [women],
   Where is the oath you took to Laicism?
   They are staining their faces.

   Know that God hits the liar,
   [I wish] you'll come to the sword of Ataturk.

   I am Ekberi, I would give my life for the [real] Muslims,
   Every moment the dark fanatic causes the flow of blood,
   Is belief possible when his mouth smells like blood?
   They became a hump on the back of my people.

   Head of a fanatic, you are a misery for this fatherland,
   [I wish] you'll come to the sword of Ataturk." (101)

Putting the distinctive Alevi references aside for a moment, the story Ekberi reports can be summarized as follows: There are Muslims in Turkey who once took the oath to Laicism but then turned against it. They mix politics with religion, proclaim their religion ostentatiously in public and are responsible for bloodshed. Their unscrupulous brutality steadily increased from the founding of the republic to the present day and they became a severe threat to the country and its ideals. But they won't succeed with their dark intentions, as they cannot escape the sword of Ataturk. In the context of this threatening scenario Ataturk appears like an avenging angel: he is referred to as the one with the law and the one with the sword. But there is a second, somewhat hidden account underlying this main story. This second story conceives the modern "religious fanatics" (yobaz) as the ones who play "the games of the Umayyad," who are using "a trick like Muaviye." Muaviye and Yezid were the first two caliphs of the Umayyad dynasty, the antagonists of Ali and his son Husein. According to the Shiite as well as the Alevi narrative, the establishment of the Umayyad dynasty betrayed the legitimate Alid claim for the leadership of the Islamic community. In our poem, the attacks of the modern "fanatics" against Laicism are compared with the intrigues of Muaviye. Thus, again, the fate of Alevism is connected with the fate of Laicism.

The Alevi support of Laicism raises an issue that warrants a brief comment on the popular discussion as to whether "Islam" could be compatible with the idea of a secular society or not. In fact, in both public and academic debates the assumption is widespread that Islam is hardly compatible with secularism. (102) However, the case of the Turkish Alevis provides us with an example of a religiously motivated Islamic group, which engages publicly for secular goals.

Historical Reasons for the Alevi Veneration of the Laic Republic and Ataturk

The cited examples of Alevi poetry have one thing in common: either explicitly or metaphorically, they fuse religious and political topics. Incorporating certain developments, events, and symbols of Turkish republican history into the Alevi narrative, they constantly reaffirm and update this narrative. Even the secularist doctrine of Laicism itself gets embedded in the Alevi narrative. The fact that the Alevis, who faced religiously justified discrimination and violence, support a laic political program makes sense. The experience of suffering under Ottoman rule is a cornerstone of collective Alevi memory in the twentieth century and serves as a main reference point for Alevi identity formation (Dressler, Die alevitische Religion 243-45). The Alevis see the secular republican order and, especially, the maintenance of Laicism as a precondition for their well-being, and equate the abolition of Laicism with re-institutionalization of the Sharia, end of religious freedom, and religious persecution. As Ataturk is the "founder" and symbol of Laicism, it is understandable that Alevis honor and venerate him even more than do non-Alevi Turks. Further it has to be considered that the public support of Ataturk and Laicism strengthens the Alevi position in the religio-political discourse of Turkey; they occasionally find themselves allied with other secularist forces (in particular the military, and secularist political parties) especially in times when political Sunni Islam appears as a threat to the laic basis of Turkey. This alliance together with their image as devoted Kemalists provides them with a certain shelter and guarantees them freedom to publicly maneuver as Alevis.

While these aspects make it comprehensible that the Alevis firmly support the laic Republic and adore Ataturk, they do not yet provide us with a sufficient explanation for why they go even so far as to endow certain aspects of the republican history and order with religious meaning. To explain this, we have to take into account further factors. Considering the reference to Ataturk as Mahdi, it has to be borne in mind that a latent Messianism, expressed in the expectation of the Mahdi, has been a constant theme in all of the proto-Alevi milieus. The embedding of political events and symbols of Turkish republican history into the Alevi narrative serves two needs. First, it updates the Alevi narrative by reframing it in the present, thereby providing Alevism--whose place in contemporary Turkey is still a contested issue--with political legitimacy and a political identity. This political identity of Alevism is especially relevant for those former atheist Alevi activists of the 1970s, who re-converted to Alevism in the 1980s and 1990s, and now stress its cultural-religious dimension. In a social atmosphere that is increasingly influenced by religious patterns of meaning, the political interpretation of Alevism provides them with the possibility to approach Alevism without totally abandoning their leftist convictions. Secondly, the embedding of Laicism and its symbol, Ataturk, into the Alevi narrative legitimizes the Alevis' commitment to Kemalism-a commitment that is challenged by the fact that Alevism throughout republican history was never officially acknowledged as a cultural-religious tradition distinct from Sunni Islam, and thus never received comparable state support. In fact there is a deep gap between the idealistic Alevi interpretation of the achievements of the secularist Republic and the actual secularist and republican reality. By furnishing their utopia of a truly "Kemalist" Republic with a religious aura, Alevis idealize it in a way that helps them endure apparent shortcomings and even discriminations: the sanctified ideal of Kemalism seems to promise them future reward for their loyalty to a system which treats them rather niggardly.

The Impact of the Alevi Worldview

A further explanation for the Alevi fusion of religious and political themes can be found in the religious worldview of Alevism outlined at the beginning of this article. This worldview, with its batinism and its conception of the divine as immanent, has no equivalent with the common western perspective on religion that structures religion along the lines of a clear-cut distinction between a transcendent God and man, between sacred and profane, between religion and politics. Post-orientalist debate has shown that such a dichotomous conception of religion is not adequate for generalization (W. L. King, Asad, Balagangadhara, R. King). Talal Asad has criticized the essentialism of the traditional western approach, which maintained that "the essence of religion is not to be confused with ... the essence of politics," as inadequate for the description of non-Christian historical realities (27). He argues that the essentialist idea of religion as a trans-historical and trans-cultural constant clearly separable from the realm of politics converges with the liberal demands of our time (Asad 28). Richard King convincingly showed that the separation of the sacred and the secular, of religion and politics, in modern academic discourse on religion can be traced back to the agenda of the Enlightenment, which aimed to restrict the influence of religion to the private (11-14, 44-48). He shows that the Christian interpretation of the etymology of the term "religion," which holds that it stems from religare ("to bind together"), further affirms this dualistic conception (R. King 36). Modern scientific conceptions of religion follow this etymological presumption when they emphasize "theistic belief ... exclusivity and a fundamental dualism between the human world and the transcendent world of the divine to which one 'binds' (religare) oneself." (R. King 37). King advocates a broader understanding of "religio" in terms of tradition and culture, i.e. going back to its original meaning prior to the christianization of the term. As he shows, this pre-Christian understanding of religio was by nature pluralist, since it took for granted that different people had different traditions (R. King 35f.) This understanding of religion was not yet structured around notions of belief, but more closely oriented to matters of practice, i.e. matters of observance of the religio. Going beyond the Christian definition of religio in terms of religare, which presumes a separation between a transcendent God and man, King champions this original and more inclusive, pluralist understanding (R. King, Orientalism and Religion, 53, 56f.). This concept of religion that transgresses the limitations of the traditional sacred-versus-profane perspective could be easily applied on the case of the Alevis (and to other traditions).

As demonstrated above, the Alevi worldview is based on a distinction between "inner" and "outer" dimensions, which are not antagonistic counterparts, but are complimentary. In a worldview like this, the world cannot be profane because God is immanent, not transcendent. The dimensions of the batin and the zahir can be found both in the realm of religion and in the realm of politics. If we make a counterfactual experiment and translate batin as "the holy," then we would observe that in the Alevi worldview, both the "religious" and the "political" bear holy and profane characteristics. From an Alevi viewpoint a distinction between the "realm of religion" and the "realm of politics" might be meaningful when talking about the institutional structure of a society. From the perspective of their religious worldview, however, it is meaningless. In contrast to the paradigmatic "western" conception of religion, the Alevi worldview does not distinguish between religion and politics with regard to their "holiness."

Concluding Remarks

The article discussed the fusion of religious and political themes in twentieth-century Alevi poetry. In this poetry, Ataturk is presented as the divinely appointed savior, the apocalyptic Mahdi fighting the Antichrist. Political events from the birth of the Republic until the present are embedded in the Alevi narrative, and the Kemalist principle of Laicism is associated with the Alevi path. The declared enemies of the Alevis and the opponents of secularism are portrayed in the frame of the Alevi narrative: they represent "Yezid," the archetypical "Other." The monist and batini worldview of the Alevis lacks a distinction between political and religious spheres and does not comply with a dichotomous conception of sacred and profane. In fact, the underlying question, "How does it come that a religious community, which subscribes to a secularist political agenda refers to this agenda and to symbols representing it in religious terms?," was answered not only by contextual arguments, but also by systematic claims questioning the conceptual dualism of the western concept of religion. Indeed, many Alevis combine political and religious themes and in that respect can be compared to "Islamists" who preach a politically activist interpretation of Islam. But unlike the latter, Alevis argue in favor of secularism and even Jacobean Turkish Laicism. They strongly oppose any limitations on secularism and go even so far as to embed laicism into their religious heritage.

As I argued, the Alevis' views on Ataturk and laicism cannot be understood with mere historical and sociological perspectives. In order to obtain a thicker description, we have to comprehend the symbols the Alevis are using. We have to get some access to their worldview, in order to clarify what at a first glance might come across as paradoxical. When focusing on poems, the metaphor appears as a key for understanding the worldview of Alevism: it links the inner and the outer meaning, the batin and the zahir. The metaphor helps one to understand why it is not paradoxical if Alevis describe "profane" political issues in "religious" terms. From their viewpoint a distinction between the "realm of religion" and the "realm of politics" is not valid, except if understood merely institutionally. In contrast to the paradigmatic "western" concept of religion, the Alevi worldview does not distinguish between religion and politics in terms of sacred and profane but in terms of inner and outer meaning. The case of the Alevis serves as an example for the limits of a dichotomous concept of religion and asks for a pluralist re-definition of the concept religion.

Notes

(1) Literally "house of communion;" the rooms and houses where Alevis conduct their religious ceremonies.

(2) This article could not have been written without a generous grant from the German Academic Exchange Service. I want to express my gratitude to the German Orient Institute in Istanbul, the basis for my research in Turkey, where I presented and discussed the concept of this article in October 2001. I also thank the Hagop Kevorkian Center of New York University, where I continued working on this article and presented an early version of it in February 2002. The article grew with the discussions I had with numerous colleagues at these institutions. A short version of the article, entitled "Questioning the Dichotomous Concept of Religion: The Case of Secularist Turkish Alevism" I presented at the annual meeting of the American Academy for Religion in Toronto, November 2002. My special thanks go to Emma Sinclair-Webb, Kocku von Stuckrad, Scott Morrison, who gave me critical feedback. Sibel Erol, Nader Sohrabi, Gottfried Hagen, Rafik Ladhani, Caroline Ladhani, and Carole Woodall deserve further thanks. Last, but not least, I thank the editor of Alif 23 and the anonymous reviewers for their very helpful critique.

(3) Andrews, 56f., 116. Due to the official non-recognition of Alevism and absence of censuses the question of the total number of Alevis is a highly controversial point.

(4) Among the most prominent of these tribally organized communities are the Tahtaci, the Cepni, and the Abdal (for an overview of their different self-designations and their regional dispersion see Andrews). These communities maintained rigid borders towards outsiders, and would not allow marriage outside the group (cf. Dressler, Die alevitische Religion 170f.). Prior to the twentieth century, these communities have been only to a minor degree connected. Nevertheless, they share a common historical background. Especially in urban centers, the traditional identities lost their pervasiveness and are nowadays, if at all, by and large used in folkloristic contexts only. Instead, Alevi became the term generally used by "Alevis" and non-Alevis alike.

(5) An outline of this longue duree is given in Dressler (Die alevitische Religion, chapter 1); cf. Ocak ("Babailer Isyanindan Kizilbasliga").

(6) The Babai were studied most comprehensively by Ocak (La revolte de Baba Resul) and Erunsal/Ocak. The "shaman" routes of proto-Alevism were studied extensively by Irene Melikoff (e.g. "Les origines centre-asiatiques").

(7) I use the terms orthodox/orthodoxy as well as heterodox/heterodoxy only as descriptors for the position of an idea or a group in a specific religio-political power discourse. For a discussion on the methodological problem of these designations see Dressler (Die alevitische Religion 23-25).

(8) Cf. Dressler, Die alevitische Religion, 42-45.

(9) The most comprehensive work on the Bektasis is still Birge; see also Popovic/Veinstein; a concise account is given in Dressler ("Bektashis").

(10) Many Alevis do so too--while Bektasis generally will keep the two communities separate.

(11) The best account of the Kizilbas uprisings in Anatolia is Sohrweide; for the Safavid order see Sumer.

(12) For a detailed analysis of the Ottoman-Safavid conflict and the role of the Anatolian Kizilbas therein, see Dressler ("Defining Orthodoxy").

(13) A vivid account of Ottoman anti-Kizilbas decrees is provided by Imber.

(14) Cf. Ortayli.

(15) Throughout this article, the term "Alevism" should be read to include "proto-Alevism," but not vice-versa.

(16) It is assumed that it reached Turkey at the beginning of the thirteenth century when a large number of Muslim refugees entered Anatolia in search for shelter from the Mongol invasion (Ivanow 18; Keddie 31-39).

(17) TANRI-DOGA-INSAN BIRLIGI (Yaman 289).

(18) The Hurufiyya (Turk.: Hurufilik) goes back to Fadlullah Astarabadi (1340-1394) and is primarily known for its mystical interpretation of letters and for its proliferation of the idea of God's manifestation in the creation (Ritter 1-5). Entering Anatolia around 1400 it flowed into the teachings of the heterodox Islamic periphery and was later on integrated into Bektasi teaching from where it also influenced Alevism (Burrill 21-23; Algar).

(19) "Okunacak en buyuk kitap insandir" (Pehlivan 25f.).

(20) Several informative articles on popular Alevi beliefs and rites are found in Engin/Franz (Aleviler/Alewiten, chapter 2).

(21) For more details on this aspect see Dressler (Die civil religion der Turkei, 86-90; Die alevitische Religion, 224-235).

(22) Cf. Bozarslan, Dressler (Die alevitische Religion 215-220), and, most comprehensively, Kucuk.

(23) A good introduction to modern Turkish history with a focus on the secularization process and on the development of Turkish Secularism is still Berkes.

(24) About one third of the Alevis are of Kurdish background (Vorhoff "'Let's Reclaim'" 232).

(25) The public figure fostering and representing this development was Turgut Ozal, Turkish prime minister from 1983 until 1989 and afterwards president until his death in 1993. In line with the idea of a "Turkish Islamic Synthesis" (Turk-Islam Sentezi), he wanted to give an example of a pious Muslim dedicated to the West and modernization (Seufert/Weyland; Dressler, Die alevitische Religion, 154-57).

(26) Not surprisingly, former leftist activists--now converted to their rediscovered religion--played a major role in this process.

(27) In practice, these associations and their club houses primarily function as social meeting points for people of Alevi background, more united by regional bounds and a general feeling of societal discrimination than by common belief.

(28) A systematic analysis of these discourses is offered in Dressler (Die alevitische Religion 176-91). For an overview of Alevi and Alevi-related publications, see Vorhoff ("Academic and Journalistic Publications").

(29) For a musicological description of the saz see Erdener (84f.). The saz is more than a music instrument for Alevis. It serves as one of the most important symbols of identity, pointing both to the religious rituals as well as to the resistance against oppression (cf. Clarke 148f).

(30) Depending on the context in which they are used, all of these designations can function as social markers. Not using the general terms sair and siir, Alevi asiks affirm their difference from the culture of the socio-political center (cf. Aslanoglu 3).

(31) Cf. Moyle 49f.

(32) Cf. Reinhard, "Die Musik der Alewiten," 199.

(33) Noyan was until his death in 1997 dedebaba, that is the selected leader of the Bektasis in Turkey.

(34) The importance and structure of the cem in Bektasism and Alevism are basically the same.

(35) In the socio-religious hierarchy of Alevism, the asik follows the dede and the rehber (spiritual guide) (Reinhard "Die Musik der Alewiten" 214).

(36) The oldest transmitted poems of Turkish bards date back to the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. They comprise mainly religious motifs. From the fifteenth century onwards other motifs were included in the repertoire of the asik (Reinhard/De Oliveira Pinto 176; cf. Golpinarli, Alevi-Bektasi Nefesleri 7). Collections of pre-modern asik poetry are offered by Koprulu; Golpinarli (Alevi-Bektasi Nefesleri); Aslanoglu; Koca (Bektasi Nefesleri ve Sairleri); Ozmen; Ergun (Bektasi Sairleri and Bektasi Edebiyati).

(37) Cf. Reinhard, "Die Musik der Alewiten," 200.

(38) Cf. Reinhard, "Die Musik der Alewiten," 207f.

(39) On the relationship between remembrance and composition in performance see also Erdener (94-108).

(40) Cf. Erdener, 118-21.

(41) Cf. Metin Turan, "Asik Gelenegi Uzerine," in: Cem 17.2 (1995): 43f.

(42) Compare the critical comment on the "modern asik" from Murat Kucuk, "Modern Zamanlar'da Asik," in: Cem 17.2 (1995): 45f.

(43) According to Zelyut (121f.), one of the first asiks, who severely criticized the political development of the republic was Ahmet Citak (born 1897); for an example of his poems see Zelyut (122). Further examples of Alevi poems attacking socio-political developments are found in the works of Erdal (Yine Dertli and Bir Ozann) as well as Atalay.

(44) Salci, 21.

(45) The famous contemporary Alevi bard Arif Sag describes this development in Yurukoglu (41f.).

(46) For an account of Arif Sag's understanding of his profession, the asik tradition, and Alevism see Yurukoglu; a comprehensive description of Ozan Sahturna's biography, and her ideological and cultural worldview is given in Ozan Sahturna.

(47) See Golpinarli (Alevi-Bektasi Nefesleri); Oztelli; Reinhard/De Oliveira Pinto; Duygulu; Salci.

(48) "Hakki" is the poet's mahlas, that is his chosen or given pen name, usually mentioned in the last strophe of a poem (cf. Kaya 86f.).

(49) The poem is quoted at Golpinarli (Alevi-Bektasi Nefesleri 59f.). The measure accompanied the destruction of the Janissary corps, which was considered as being politically unreliable and a threat to the intended modernization of the Ottoman army. Bektasi dervishes served as the military chaplains of the Janissaries, a function that made them a target of the Ottoman anti-Janissary policy (see Kucuk 32-40).

(50) Atalay is an Alevi from the province of Erzincan. Born in 1936, he is one of the most productive contemporary Alevi authors. His books include works about Alevi saints, and collections of former Alevi poets, but he also has published several collections of his own poems. He runs a very productive publishing house (Can Yayinlari) in Istanbul, dedicated to Alevism.

(51) "Seven states" is a colloquial idiom for the allied forces, who occupied vast parts of Anatolia after World War II.

(52) In Sufi terminology tac (literally: "crown") is an expression for the headgear of the dervish.

(53) Ata literally means "father," Ataturk means "Father of the Turks." This exclusive surname was given to the president Mustafa Kemal by a special law in 1934.

(54) In Alevism and Bektasism meydan is the place of religious communion and worship. A meydan eri is an initiated individual participating in the cem ceremony (cf. Korkmaz 241f.).

(55) The dragon with seven heads, already mentioned in the Apocalypse of John (17, 3), is also a widely known figure in Turkish epic narratives. The story of how the semi-legendary Sari Saltuk (thirteenth century), one of the heroic figures of the (proto-)Alevi tradition, defeated a seven-headed dragon is reported in different (proto-)Alevi hagiographies (Kiel 270, 283). In our poem, the dragon obviously serves, in analogy to the "seven states," as a metaphor for the allied forces.

(56) The lion symbolizes Ali; the Zulfikar is the legendary sword of Ali. For Alevis and Bektasis both symbols represent Ali's power and his mission to fight for justice.

(57) "Oz yurdumda esir olmak cok aci/Annem bagirmisti duydun mu

   baci!/Mehdi cikmis vurmus basina taci/Hep kostular sanki isyan
   olmustu....
   Yenilmezdik birlik olduk pir idik,/Bolunmezdik ATA ile bir
   idik/Tutsak degil olsek dahi hur idik/Erler meydan dedi merdan
   olmustu.

   Yurdu vermek bize gelmisti aci/Toplandi gonullu, kardes hem baci/
   Bekleniyor idi bir kurtarici/Sanki haktan bize ayan olmustu

   Zaten ilk darbeyi haine vurduk/Yedi basli ejder vatandan kovduk/
   Zulfikar'i cekmis bir Aslan gorduk/Cunku cumle derde derman olmustu
   ...
   Tamamen batarken dogduydu gunes,/Cihana gelmemis Ata'ya bir es./
   Kitaplar doldursam sigmaz ki uc bes/O Turk milletine devran olmustu
   ...
   Ata'miz dedi ki 'Kolelik bitsin.'/'Dusman nasil geldi, oylece
   gitsin'/'Sonen ocaklarda ozgurluk tutsun'/Yandi ocak sozu erkan
   olmustu ..."
   (Atalay 182-86)

(58) The lofty and emphatic tone of the narration, however, might be startling for ears unfamiliar with it; as I showed in an earlier work (Dressler, Die civil religion der Turkei) the status of Ataturk and his deeds in Turkey can, in fact, be described as civil religious.

(59) The historically most significant figures to which Mahdi expectations were addressed to, were Baba Ilyas (d.1240), Sheykh Bedreddin (1358/9-1416) and Shah Ismail (1487-1524). After the sixteenth century, which witnessed the appearance of several Mahdis in connection with the Kizilbas uprisings, the acute Mahdi expectation seems to have decreased. However, Kizilbas-Alevi poetry indicates its latent persistence through the centuries to modern times (Dressler, Die alevitische Religion, 26-98, 118-23).

(60) The assumption that Ataturk was initiated into the Bektasi order is a recent thesis of some Alevi authors which, however, lacks any historic evidence (Dressler, Die civil religion der Turkei, 97-100).

(61) This theme, too, is elaborated in more detail by other Alevis, some going so far as to argue that Ataturk is an incarnation of Ali (Dressler, Die civil religion der Turkei, 104f.).

(62) Only members of ocak families can become dedes that is social and religious leaders of the community.

(63) Unfortunately we have no further information regarding his person.

(64) "Dila mu'ciz-numa, hayret-feza bir macerasidir bu/Bi-hamdillah kemal-i nur-u feyz-i Mustafa' dir bu

   Perisan eyleyen dusmani gerci tig-i hunrizi/Ana imdad-i ruhani
   Ali-yyel-Murtaza' dir bu

   Ne sur' attir ki Yunan'i vatandan surdu bir anda/Cihan kaldi
   tahayyurde aceb ibret-numadir bu

   Sau mazlum milleti kurtardi her kayd-i esaretten/Dilberane gazalar
   eyleyen merd-i Huda'dir bu

   O server alem-i Islama sertac-i mukerremdir/Ana kasdeyleyen
   dusmanlara hukm-u kazadir bu

   Bu gun hursid-i istiklal Asim mulk-u Islama/Cikup arz-i cemal
   etti ne hos bir dil-rubadir bu

   ... Kemal Pasa-yi pak tiynete ancak duadir bu" (Noyan, Butun
   Yonleriyle 405f.).

(65) Unless the expression "beautiful beloved" also refers to Mustafa Kemal.

(66) Cf. Dressler (Die civil religion der Turkei).

(67) The poem is quoted in Noyan (Bektasilik Alevilik Nedir? 263-68).

(68) The poem is quoted in Yardimci/Hayrettin (16f.).

(69) The militant violence of the 1970s is widely reflected in the Alevi poetry of this period. See for example the poems written by Atalay (110, 121, 127, 129f.).

(70) Similar, Marxist interpretations of Shiism are found in the Iranian movement of the Mojahedin (see Abrahamian 92, 105-20).

(71) Most probably Asik Nesimi Cimen (1931-1993), one of the victims of the horrifying Sivas incident in 1993.

(72) Quoted in French in Bayart (118). Unfortunately I could not trace the Turkish original.

(73) Again there are similarities to the case of the Mojahedin. They, too, interpreted their political struggle with reference to metaphors of the Shiite narration of suffering. They, too, compared contemporary martyrdom with Kerbela, and contemporary martyrs (e.g. Che Guevara) with the martyrs of the early Shia (Abrahamian 94). Ali Shariati's famous statement "Every month is Moharram, every day 'Ashura, and every place Karbala" (Abrahamian 112)-in the quoted poem of Asik Nesimi we find a very similar expression--is a characteristic example of this worldview.

(74) "Okurmusunuz siz Ku'ran-i Kerimi/Insan yakmak nerede goster yerini/Cevapsiz birakma benim sorumu/Nicin kast edersin ey kanli yezid Dunya'yi ayaga kaldirdi olay/Sivas'da yokmuydu askeri alay/Yakildi insanlar cekildi halay/Nicin kast edersin ey kanli yezid[?] ASIK FEVZI erenlerin yolunda/Daim Ezberim de atmam dilimde/Imam Mehdi bir gun zuhur olunca/Bakalim ne olur ey kanli yezid[.]" (Quoted in the Alevi monthly Pir 1.2 [1995]: 20. Unfortunately I have no further information on the author).

(75) Born 1928 in the province of Malatya.

(76) For further examples of an Alevi contextualisation of the Sivas incident see Serif (463f.), Erdal (Yine Dertli Dertli Iniliyorsun 308).

(77) "Asirlardir insanliga dusmanlar,/[K]erbela kiyimi oldu Sivasta,/Zalim pasa ile Pif Sultan gibi,/Ozanlar-yazarlar yandi Sivasta." (Yazicioglu 96)

(78) The Turkish word for minister, bakan, literally means "one who is watching," that is a spectator-this might be an intended double meaning.

(79) "... Seriatci din adina kandirir/Gericiler cok ocaklar sondurur,/ATATURK cu dusunceyi sindirir,/Demokrasi Turkiye'ye sigmadi.

   Dogu-Bati kan icinde heey yarab,/Ulkeyi karantilga [sic] surukler
   arap,/Laiklik giderse olacak harap,/Demokrasi Turkiye'ye sigmadi.

   ATATURK'un sozleriyle ilkesi,/Teker teke[r] koparildi halkasi,/
   Karan[l]iga gomuluyor ulkesi,/Demokrasi Turkiye ye sigmadi.

   Kerbela olayi yaralar acti,/Corum, Maras, Sivas onu da gecti,/Bu
   nasil islamlik duyanlar sasti,/Demokrasi Turkiye ye sigmadi.

   Cennet hevesiyle Insan yakanlar,/Utanmadi seyreyledi Bakanlar,/
   Unutulmaz Sivas'ta bu yanan canlar,/Demokrasi Turkiye'ye sigmadi.

   YAZICIOGLU yobaz dinci dilinden,/Ulke ceker gericinin elinden,/
   Sasmiyalim Laikligin yolundan/Demokrasi Turkiye'ye sigmadi."
   (Yazicioglu 49)

(80) Maras and Corum were sites of severe anti-Alevi violence in 1978 and 1980 respectively.

(81) Cf. Dressler, Die civil religion der Turkei, 61-81.

(82) The similarity of the dates suggests a misprint. May 27 might be the originally intended signature.

(83) Namaz is the technical term for the ritual prayer in Islam, which is not practiced by Alevis.

(84) In Turkish folk literature, Battal Gazi is the hero of the widely circulated Turkish epic Battalname.

(85) Can ("soul") is the term Alevis usually use to address each other.

(86) "Ahir zaman kahramani Ataturk/Turkiye'nin hali yaman oldu gel/Fitne fesat ellerinde kaldi mulk/Kardaslar kardasa dusman oldu gel

   ...
   Seyhi seytan kendi seytan cogaldi/Hortlari cehennem cennetler
   n'oldu/Her seye zam geldi bir namaz kaldi/Yalancinin sozu iman
   oldu gel

   ...
   Tac idi ay gunes basinda Atam/Dunya egilirdi karsinda Atam/Allah'in
   ordusu [p]esinde Atam/Deccal cikti ahir zaman oldu gel

   ... Memleket zelzele haline dondu/Vekiller seytan in atina bindi/
   Anayasa inkar suman oldu gel

   Soyle yuce Tanrim Mehdi'yi salsin/Ali Battal Gazi beraber gelsin/
   Sana tas atanin eli kirilsin/Gafiller cahiller pisman oldu gel

   Ali Izzet OZKAN can seni gozler/Oksuz kalan vatan han seni
   gozler/Serefli sohretli san seni gozler/Kafir yurdumuza mihman
   oldu gel" (quoted in Nasrattinoglu 143).

(87) Cf. Zurcher, 250-252.

(88) Plenty of examples are easily found in Ataturk anthologies as for example Halici; Nasrattinoglu; Ediboglu/Caglayan.

(89) Cf. Dressler, Die alevitische Religion, 108f.

(90) Cf. Zurcher, 234f., 245f., and 250.

(91) For examples see Ozmen (5: 311, 371, and 542); Cirakman (120f. and 169); Gulhani (15); Atalay (177).

(92) Especially amongst Bektasis it is quite common to regard Haci Bektas Veli as the spiritual founder of the Turkish nation. Halifebaba (the second highest rank in the Bektasi order) Turgut Koca (1921-1997) for example made this explicit in several of his poems (Koca, Pir Nefes Ustad 40f., 73f.).

(93) For more on Alevi equations of Ataturk and Haci Bektas, see Dressler (Die civil religion der Turkei 101-04).

(94) Innumerable Alevi poems interpret Ataturk from a religious angle. For examples from different poets see Serif (327f.); Reinhard/De Oliveira Pinto (1965466); Atalay (178-81); Nasrattinoglu (8, 101, 107, 164, and 194); Ozmen (528, 539).

(95) For an account of the different patterns of meaning attributed to the term in contemporary Turkey see Dressler (Die alevitische Religion 144-54).

(96) For examples see Dressler (Die alevitische Religion 183, 228-231).

(97) In Alevism and Bektasism the notion abdest refers to the initiation into the religious path (Golpinarli, Tasavvuf'tan Dilimize 8; Korkmaz 14f.).

(98) "Aleviyiz bilmeyiz hainlik/Yolumuzdan gecer laiklik/Abdestim var Tanri'ya layik/Aleviyim, Hak yolundan sasmazam." (composed by Cihan Dogan [from the province of Maras] and published in the Alevi monthly Cem 2.13 [1992]: 60).

(99) "... Laik olsun daim yolumuz/Yuce Ataturk'tur bizim ulumuz/Ileriye gitsin guzel yurdumuz/Milletimiz caglari acsin da gitsin ..." ("Feryadi" Kemal Yuceturk in a poem published in the Alevi monthly Cem 2.13 [1992]: 61).

(100) Muaviye was the military and political rival of Ali in the fight over the caliphate. After Ali's assassination (661) he became the first caliph of the Umayyad dynasty.

(101) "Namazi da siyasete kattilar/Sokakta namaza durur oldular/Muaviye gibi hile yaptilar/Laiklik ilkesin vurur oldular

   Bilirim ki bastan basa hilesin/Ataturk'un kilicina gelesin

   Nasal yaratiklar doymazlar kana/Imanli bir kisi kastetmez
   cana/Cumhuriyet kurulduktan bu yana/Azdi yobaz hep kudurur oldular

   Zannetmeki salyan akip gidesin/Ataturk'un kilicina gelesin

   Yapisacak Ataturk'un kanunu/Iyi gormuyorum senin sonunu/Bu oyunlar
   emevinin oyunu/Her hileye kilif bulur oldular

   Anayasa tokatini yiyesin/Ataturk'un kilicima gelesin

   Laikligi yikmak imis meramin/Dokuza dek cikmak imis haremin/Nerde
   laiklige ettigin yemin/Yuzlerine kara vurur oldular

   Yalanciyi Tanri carpar bilesin/Ataturk'un kilicina gelesin

   EKBERIyem muslumana can kurban/Kara yobaz her an akitirmis kan/Agzi
   kan kokanda olur[]mu iman?/Halkimin sirtina kambur oldular

   Yobaz basi bu vatana cilesin/ATATURK'un kilicina gelesin." (Ekberi
   in a poem published in the Alevi monthly Cem 4.37 [1994]: 58f.)

(102) For instructive studies challenging the essentialist notion of an Islam that is incompatible with secularism, see Lapidus; Scholch; Dabashi; Schulze; cf. Dressler (Die alevitische Religion 235-243).

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