1 Paradoxical Invisibility: Fortifying Invisibility for Empowerment in the Face of Disempowering Structural Invisibilities (original) (raw)

Managing Invisibility, 2014

Abstract

This introductory chapter presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the book Managing Invisibility. The book focuses on the complicated invisibilities of Alevi Bulgarian Turks in Bulgaria and Turkey. The ethnic Turks of Bulgaria were transformed into 'Bulgarian Turks' as a minority community in Bulgaria and an external kin-nation to Turks in Anatolia, following Bulgaria's de facto independence from Ottoman rule in 1878. Alevis as a Muslim community stand outside the mainstream Sunni and Shia sects of Islam. An anthropological study of dissimulation may broaden our understanding of religiously-marked minorities' situations in extremely divided societies. Historical cases show that dissimulation was utilized by minorities who faced extreme forms of violence such as persecutions, severe discrimination or social, political and legal exclusion. The chapter also presents an overview of how the other chapters of the book are organized.Keywords: Alevi Bulgarian Turks; Muslim community; Ottoman rule

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