This dissertation asks: How do marginalized communities navigate and resist state surveillance and control, and what strategies do they use to preserve their cultural identity and historical consciousness against state-imposed narratives? More specifically, how do state surveillance practices, cultural representation, and tourism initiatives affect the daily lives, identities, and resistance strategies of the Kurdish Alevi community in Dersim, Turkey? Through extensive ethnographic fieldwork conducted between 2021 and 2023, I examine the intersections of urban space, memory, and affect in a region marked by political violence and marginalization. Dersim, officially renamed Tunceli, is home to a double-minoritized population that is both ethnonationally Kurdish and ethnoreligiously Alevi. The city has long been a focal point of political subjugation, marked by the genocidal campaign of 1937-1938 and persistent militarization. I explore how state power permeates daily life through surveillance and control of the spaces and bodies, processes that are contested by the local population. This dissertation employs a multi-methodological approach, drawing on participant observation, in-depth interviews, archival research, and media and material culture analysis. It illuminates the affective encounters and ordinary acts of resistance that characterize life in Dersim. By framing Dersim as an ‘affective geography,’ the study underscores the ontological connection between the people and their sacred landscape. It highlights how environmental destruction serves as a form of cultural and symbolic violence.
The dissertation posits that while state surveillance and control shape the daily lives of marginalized communities, these communities actively resist such impositions through various strategies. The strategies include the negotiation of public and private spaces, the creation of counter-narratives, and the maintenance of cultural practices that reinforce historical consciousness and local identity. The dissertation contributes to the broader discourse on urban space, memory politics, state power, and resistance. It offers a nuanced understanding of how marginalized communities navigate and contest their imposed identities and histories in contemporary Turkey.