Neither In Nor Outside the Turkish Nation: The AKP’s Alevi Policies in Historical Perspective | Riza Yildirim

This talk examines the historical background of the AKP’s policies toward the Alevi community and explains why these initiatives ultimately failed, despite efforts to promote dialogue among Alevi leaders, scholars, and state officials aimed at incorporating Alevi identity into the framework of national unity. Moving beyond the AKP’s well-known political pragmatism, the paper situates its Alevi policies within a longer historical trajectory and argues that enduring structural and political constraints embedded in the Turkish state tradition—rooted in the Ottoman legacy—have consistently hindered meaningful recognition and inclusion of Alevis. It further contends that these same structural constraints also informed the AKP’s Syria policy and its approach to the Alewite population living there. 

Riza Yıldırım is a historian of the Ottoman Empire and Safavid Iran, and a scholar of religion specializing in Islamic heterodoxy, Shiism, and Sufism, with particular emphasis on Alevism and Bektashism. He earned his first PhD from Bilkent University, where his research examined the formation of the Qizilbash movement within the context of Ottoman–Safavid imperial rivalry. He received his second PhD from Emory University, focusing on the religious and political system of the Qizilbash military elites in Safavid Iran. He has taught at several institutions, including TOBB University of Economics and Technology (Turkey), Emory University, Agnes Scott College, and the University of Vienna. He is the author of six books and numerous articles exploring various aspects of Alevi and Bektashi history, as well as their religious beliefs and practices.