The Seminar on Turkey in the Modern World is pleased to present
Ayfer Karakaya-Stump
Assistant Professor of History, College of William & Mary
The historically disenfranchised Alevi minority make up somewhere between 10-15% of the population of Turkey. All eight youths who lost their lives as a result of police violence during the Gezi Park protests, and 78% of those detained during these protests were members of this minority. How should we read this data? What does it tell us beyond the well-attested strong Alevi presence in the Gezi protests? In light of this data, how meaningful is it to characterize the Gezi protests as an Alevi uprising, as some pro-AKP circles do? These and similar questions regarding Alevi participation in the Gezi protests will be discussed, taking into account broader socio-economic and religio-political dynamics of Turkey, and how they have shifted during the last 12 years of AKP rule.
Contact: Lenore Martin
Sponsor(s): Weatherhead Center for International Affairs, Center for Middle Eastern Studies
As a Title VI National Resource Center, CMES is partially funding this program with U.S. Department of Education grant funds. The content of this program does not necessarily reflect the views or policies of the U.S. Department of Education.
LOCATION:CGIS Knafel 354, 1737 Cambridge Street, Cambridge, MA 02138 STATUS:CONFIRMED DTSTART:20140414T200000Z DTEND:20140414T220000Z END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR