The Forgotten Icon of ‘68 in Turkey: Hüseyin Cevahir

Abstract

This essay focuses on Hüseyin Cevahir, a revolutionary with roots in the Alevite-Kurdish formation and one of the forgotten student leaders of ’68 in Turkey. The essay underscores Cevahir’s presence within the Turkish Left as not merely a matter of cultural difference. On the contrary, his silent but transformative effects on the Turkish Left stemmed from his subaltern presence, embodied in a double memory. Cevahir incorporated his knowledge of the racialized community of Dersim, in which he was born, into his intellectual awareness, undermining any sovereign subjectivization under the pretext of the universality of the state. Simultaneously, his subaltern experiences helped him to transfigure the racial structures of domination that shaped the political imaginary of middle-class subjectivity among revolutionary Turkish youth under the pretext of class universality. One can thus infer that the main factor behind Cevahir’s oblivion in the counterpublic in Turkey is this double criticism embodied in his persona.