The Twenty-Five Turkish Alawi From Tokat And The Creation Of The Alawite Bektash Italia in Lecco

This paper aims to shed light on the rationale behind the creation of the first Italian Alevi association, the Alevite Bektasi Italia. It is based on field work, interviews and participant observations conducted in the northern Italian city of Lecco in 2018 and 2019. The association is mostly formed by Turkish Alevi coming from the rural areas of the Turkish West 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 several informants, including former presidents of the Alevite Bektasi 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 determinants that inspired the Turkish Alevi from Tokat to form an Alevi 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.