Community, Ideology and Ethnicity: Narratives and Re-Imagining Alevi Identity in post-1980 Turkey The Alevis, one of the largest communal groups in Turkey, are geographically spread throughout Turkey. The academic and popular literatures on Alevilik have often referred to the period starting from the late 1980s as the “Alevi revival”. This “revival/transformation” has manifested itself in forms of heightened group consciousness, greater ease to express the identity in the public sphere, increased public visibility, and the making political and legal claims over Alevi identity in social and political arenas. There is still an unsettled debate and ongoing competition between different versions of discourses on Alevi identity about the outlines and the core feature of modern, urban Alevi identity. This study investigates the dynamics of Alevi identity negotiation process through the competing narratives, within the context of post 1980 Turkey. The objective of this study is to investigate the role of personal and collective narratives in the negotiation of collective identities. More specifically the study addresses the questions of how the Alevi identity is re-negotiated through personal and collective narratives within the context of post 1980 Turkey? Establishing a coherent Alevi identity within the modern urban context among people who have different, ideological, social, religious orientations, and social and economic backgrounds is an ongoing struggle for activists of the Alevi community. I will argue that there are at least three main contending discourses on Alevi identity. Those discourse positions constitute different visions about the past and the futures of Alevi community as well as the cultural and the political boundaries of Alevi identity. In addition to creating different visions about the Alevi identity, history and future, those contending discourses also constituted Alternative definitions of “Sunni identity”, which is considered as the other of Alevi identity. The features of the competing discourses are comparatively analyzed through life story narratives of Alevis who are actively involved in the process of social and political change. A multiplicity of data sources have been used for this research but the main data is the in depth semi structured interview transcripts of more than 70 Alevi’s that were actively involved, and still getting involved in this process of revival. Transcripts and records of semi-academic discussions are also used to help outline general discussions.