THE TWENTY-FIVE TURKISH ALAWI FROM TOKAT AND THE CREATION OF THE ALAWITE BEKTASHI ITALIA IN LECCO

This paper aims to shed light on the rationale behind the creation of the first Italian Alawi association, the Alawite Bektashi Italia. It is based on fieldwork, interviews and participant observations conducted in the northern Italian city of Lecco mostly in 2018 and 2019. However, fieldwork trips date back to 2016. The association is mainly formed by Alawis coming from the rural areas of the Turkish Middle Black Sea Region of Tokat. The paper reports the outcome of the first research of this kind ever conducted in Italy and relies on data gathered from a number of informants, including former presidents of the Alawite Bektashi Italia Association, and, above all, upon the life-story of a key informant, one of the founders of the association. The article is structured in order to describe the following points: the trajectories of the first migration waves, in the late Eighties, from Turkey to Italy; the influences that inspired Alawis from Tokat to form an Alawi cultural association in Italy in 2006; the activities of the cultural centre; and, finally, the way the cultural centre and their members are responding to recent political changes in Italy and beyond.