Konstruktionen av alevitisk religiös identitet i turkisk media : - en diskursiv analys av de engelskspråkiga tidningarna Hürriyet DailyNews och Today´s Zaman

Alevism as such is both contested and difficult to define, despite the fact that nearly a quarter of the Turkish population can be said to identify with it (See egMarkussen, 2005; Sirin, 2013). Discussions regarding whether alevism should bedefined as a religious minority or not is going on both in the research communityas among the Alevis themselves. Also the meaning of Alevi religiosity as such isdebated and can be simply described as a discussion of whether alevism should beregarded as a part of Islam. The purpose of this discourse study is therefore to examine the construction of Alevi religious identity in two English-language Turkish newspaper, namely the Hürriyet Daily News and Today `s Zaman. With the overarching aim to achieve adeep understanding of the conditions that are given the Alevi group to form their own identity. The research questions are therefore formulated as follow; How are alevism described in Hürriyet Daily News and Today `s Zaman?, What religious dimensions are highlighted in the description of alevism? and What limitations and negotiation space indicates these descriptions of the Alevi group?. To sum up, this study shows that the Alevi identity constructed in Hürriyet DailyNews and Today´s Zaman is based on three different discourses; The Islamdiscourse, which describe alevism as a minority position within Islam emphasizing it´s heterodox nature, The Syncretisticdiscourse, which instead emphasizes the syncretic character of alevism and describes it as a separate religion outside the Islamic Community, and The Alevireligion-discourse, that in turn can be said to include both The Islamdiscourse and The Syncretisticdiscourse. Furthermore, it describe alevism and the Alevi identity as non-sunni and as a religious minority. Regardless of discourse the Alevis are inevitably in a minority position when it requires a Sunni identity to be a part of the majority group. The negotiation space of their identity could therefore be seen as limited