The Alevi Workshops: An Opening Without an Outcome?

Abstract

This paper aims to analyze the Alevi Opening in 2009 by the Justice and Development Party. Based on a close reading of the manuscripts of the seven workshops and the subsequently published report, a critical analysis of the initiative by the government is presented. It is argued that the organization and the composition of the workshops were not conducive to attaining a set of solutions to the problems encountered by the Alevis. The article concludes by stating that, though a historic step in state-Alevi relations, the Opening has not been successful in producing a politically significant result.