Turkic Educators and Students Breaking Their Silence: An Oral History of a Tangled Web of Political Power

Abstract

The social genocide of the Hizmet people by the Erdoğan regime has left an indelible mark on Turkic educators and students worldwide. The practice of genocide as a form of political control is steeped in the history of the Ottoman Empire and the Republic of Turkey and now the instrument of choice for the Erdoğan regime in a political shift toward authoritarianism. The educators and students whose voices were un-muted in this project represent counter-narratives to the government-controlled media representations of the Hizmet people and their roles in political influence are portrayed as terroristic threats. The purpose of this oral history was to illuminate the stories of Hizmet educators and students and their experiences of the social genocide of the Hizmet people within the milieu of Turkish tradition and culture. The approach was threefold: (1) to illuminate the evolution and emergence of Hizmet pedagogical practice couched in the context of 150 years of Turkish history from the period of the decline and fall of the Ottoman Empire to modern-day Türkiye; (2) to examine the juxtaposition of the Gülen movement philosophy on the pedagogical practice of Hizmet educators; and (3) to connect the stories of Hizmet educators, now teaching in the United States to pedagogical practices steeped in Turkic culture and tradition. This historical research provided an intimate glimpse into the lived experiences of educators and students who have been mischaracterized and victimized in a political genocide far beyond their control.