Parçalı bir bütün: Alevilerin kente göçü

The present thesis aims to recount the current situation of the Alevi community in the urban Turkish setting. The data were collected during eight months of ethnographic field research from February 2009 to October 2009 in a complex preferred to be called as the Dikmen Alevi Community Center, in Ankara. I present different ways adopted by various groups while explaining what Alevism is and I stress the fact that there is a certain degree of fragmentalization within the community due to such diverse descriptions. Thenceforth, I emphasize the reasons behind the existence of divergent classifications and analyze Alevis’ migration from rural to urban areas during 1970s and 1980s as it relates to the changes in the institutions. After offering an evaluation of the changes accompanying migration, I accentuate the competitive sharing of the city as a religious space between Alevis and Sunnis concentrating on Alevis’ perception of religious space and providing a comparison between Sunni and Alevi perceptions regarding the places of worship. Subsequently, I attempt to show that there is a competitive sharing relationship present within the community giving the example of Dikmen Alevi Community Center after the establishment of the Alevi Institute for Research, Documentation and Application. I conclude that this kind of a relationship and the current state of affairs are the results of the struggle to adapt to a changing environment, which in turn alters the individuals themselves.M.S. - Master of Scienc