Over the last four decades, the mass mobilization of Alevis has become one of the most significant socio-political developments in Turkey and in the Turkish diaspora in Europe. This mobilization was shaped by several interrelated processes. Large-scale migration and the resulting urbanization of the Alevi population facilitated new forms of collective organization. Violent attacks against Alevis - most notably the burning of the Madımak Hotel in Sivas in 1993 and the Gazi incidents in Istanbul in 1995 - further accelerated Alevi collective mobilization and organizational consolidation. As a result, Alevi organizations have become increasingly visible in the public sphere and have articulated demands for official recognition both in Turkey and across Europe. These demands reached their most visible institutional expression during the "Alevi Opening" initiated by the AKP government, particularly through the Alevi Workshops (2009-2011) and, more recently, through the establishment of the Alevi-Bektaşi Cemevi Kültür Başkanlığı in 2022 within the Ministry of Culture and Tourism. This paper explores how these developments illuminate the structure of the Turkish religious field and the position of Alevis within it. It outlines the main official and unofficial actors that constitute the field and analyzes how different actors frame Alevi demands for recognition. The paper argues that Alevis occupy a paradoxical position within the Turkish religious field: while Alevi organizations challenge its institutional structure and often resist defining Alevism primarily in religious terms, their struggle for recognition inevitably situates them within it. Alevis thus emerge as reluctant actors in the religious field, opposing its structure yet unable to remain outside it.