Social genocide of the Hizmet people by the current Erdogan government of Turkey

Kari O’Rourke discusses her recent doctoral dissertation describing, “Turkic educators and students breaking their silence: An oral history of a tangled web of political power” with Radio Active Magazine regular Spencer Graves. She got her PhD in “Educational Leadership, Policy, and Foundations and Curriculum and Instruction” from UMKC for her work describing “The social genocide of the Hizmet people by the Erdoğan regime” in Turkey today.

The Hizmet people are followers of Fethullah Gülen, a Muslim scholar and preacher with a checkered history in Turkish politics. They were allied with Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan when Erdogan came to power in 2002. Many Hizmet people were appointed to law enforcement and judiciary positions. However, when news reports began to accuse Erdogan of corruption, Erdogan responded by labeling Gülen and his Hizmet followers as terrorists. Erdogan’s response included closing Gülen news outlets and demanding that the US extradite Gülen, who has lived in the US since 1999. Gülen preaches a tolerant version of conservative Islam. This includes supporting universal access to education, civil society, tolerance and peace.

Ms. O’Rourke’s dissertation summarizes and analyzes her interviews with Hizmet educators and students. She documents the evolution of their approach to pedagogy over the past 150 years and how their practices relate to pedagogy in the US today and in Turkic culture and traditions.

Hizmet refugees in the US are being supported by Advocates of Silenced Turkey and the Dialogue Institute of Kansas City.More information about them and about support activities is available at their websites (https://silencedturkey.org/ and https://dialoguekansascity.org/).

Copyright 2024, Kari O’Rouke and Spencer Graves, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike (CC BY-SA) 4.0 international license.

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