‘Speaking in One's Own Voice’: Representational Strategies of Alevi Turkish Migrants on Open‐Access Television in Berlin

Abstract

The article takes up current scholarly and policy discussions on mass media and minority participation in Western Europe, where the prerogative of letting minorities ‘speak in their own voice’ occupies a central place. The article presents the mass media activities of Turkish Alevi migrants at a local open‐access television station in Berlin, and problematises the notion of ‘voice’ with regard to cultural representations in their programmes and Internet publications. It is argued that Alevi media productions employ a range of representational strategies that can be understood only if their transnational context is taken into account. Confronting hegemonic discourses tied to two different nation‐states which ascribe diverging negative meanings to Alevi Muslims, media producers are shown to exploit this divergence in their attempts to construct positive images of Alevilik.

Keywords:

• Germany
• Islam
• Media
• Migration
• Turkey

Notes

Kira Kosnick is Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the University of Southampton, conducting research for the EU Fifth Framework Project ‘Changing City Spaces—New Challenges to Cultural Policy in Europe’. Correspondence to: Dr Kira Kosnick, Modern Languages Department, University of Southampton, Highfield, Southampton SO17 1BJ, UK. E‐mail: [email protected]

Gaziosmanpasa is a poor neighborhood in Istanbul whose inhabitants are predominantly Alevi. In 1995, 15 Alevis were killed in clashes with police forces after unidentified gunmen opened fire on a teahouse. For the Sivas fire, see below.

Kirk budak, literally ‘forty branches’, refers to the forty saints that the Prophet Muhammed met according to Alevi interpretation during his ascent to heaven (mirac¸).

The term kizilbas, ‘redhead’, has become a widespread pejorative term for Alevis in Turkey. It emerged in the early sixteenth century in the Ottoman Empire as a label for heterodox Muslims, and is traced back to the red turban of Ali, but also to the traditional headgear of Tu¨rkmen populations.

Brackette Williams has pointed out the importance of ‘bleeding for the nation’ among subordinated groups, greater sacrifice allowing groups to make a stronger claim for ‘equal citizenship’ due to its contribution to the nation (Williams 1989).

They are connected both through the historical ties that link Turkey and Germany and through the wider, in part global cultural and economic contexts in which they are differently implicated.