Editorial: Alevi Kurds: History, Politics and Identity
Umit Cetin
University of Westminster
Celia Jenkins
Celia Jenkins, Principal Lecturer in Sociology, School of Social Sciences, the University of Westminster, 32-38 Wells St. London W1T 3UW
Suavi Aydın
Suavi Aydın, Professor, Faculty of Communication, Hacettepe University, 06800, Beytepe, Ankara, Turkey
University of Westminster
Celia Jenkins
Celia Jenkins, Principal Lecturer in Sociology, School of Social Sciences, the University of Westminster, 32-38 Wells St. London W1T 3UW
Suavi Aydın
Suavi Aydın, Professor, Faculty of Communication, Hacettepe University, 06800, Beytepe, Ankara, Turkey
Keywords: Kurdish Alevism, assimilation, transnational migration, diaspora, community.
Abstract
This special issue brings together scholarship on Alevi Kurds by focusing on their ethnic, linguistic, religious, political, cultural and social specificity including a range of articles from the disciplines of anthropology, history, politics, linguistics and sociology. The first part focuses on Turkey, exploring the roots of Kurdish Alevism and how Alevi religious identities intersect with ethnic and national identity and political representations, and the second focuses on Alevi Kurds and their creation of a transnational religious identity and their mixed experience of settlement in the UK diaspora.