BESA-By Aykan Erdemir: The Limits of Erdoğan’s “Nation”
Turkish PM Recep Tayyip Erdogan via Presidential Press and Information Office of the Russian Federation www.kremlin.ru
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s recent strategy of allying with the far right and his turn to nationalism are limited by the Sunni sectarian nature of his politics. A closer examination of the failure of his Alevi reform initiative of 2009-2010 reveals the structural obstacles Turkish Islamists encounter in their attempts to reach beyond the Sunni community to coopt Turkey’s Alevi electorate. In a similar manner, Erdoğan’s nationalist policies will continue to exclude Alevis, entrench sectarianism further, and expose the limits of belonging to his Sunni “nation.”
BESA Center Perspectives Paper No. 724, January 25, 2018