On January 20, 2026, Prof. Riza Yildirim from the Department of Alevi Theological Studies will analyze the historical background for the ruling AKP's policy toward the Alevi community in his lecture at Stanford University/USA. Why did the efforts of Alevi leaders, scholars, and civil servants to integrate Alevi identity into the framework of national unity fail? Yildirim seeks clues for Alevi politics in a more distant historical context. The structural and political constraints anchored in Turkish state tradition are rooted in the Ottoman heritage, which does not serve the recognition and integration of Alevis. Yildirim further argues that the same structural constraints shaped the AKP's Syria policy and its treatment of the Alawite population living there.