Sometimes things happen in the world that you have a hard time believing. For this reason, you hesitate to write without being sure. But when a similar event happens not once, not twice, but hundreds of times, you feel a responsibility as an intellectual, a journalist to record it in history. So that it does not happen again.

Let me give you a few examples. I was in New York in the summer of 2016. It was early August. A teacher who was leading a group of students who were visiting from Turkey contacted me. He asked me to give a seminar to the students on career management. I had written a book on “Professions of the Future” 25 years ago. He wanted me to talk about this subject too. When I met with the group of students, the teacher was upset.

When he told me why, I had a hard time believing it. He said that the Erdoğan Regime in Turkey had revoked the university diplomas of tens of thousands of teachers, including himself. He had just learned this. He had come to America from Turkey three days ago as a teacher and this time he would be returning unemployed.

Moreover, he was worried about being arrested like thousands of other teachers whose diplomas were revoked. But he also had to take his students back to Turkey after the trip. The only reason he faced this problem was that he was labeled as an opponent of the Erdoğan Regime. Even teachers with 20-30 years of experience were suddenly left without a diploma and could no longer do their jobs. I later learned that he was arrested in front of his students at the Istanbul airport on his return.

I am the first scholar in Turkey to conduct academic research on Hitler. There are many examples of the practices of dictators in my books, articles and newspaper columns. During my research on Hitler and other dictators, I have never come across information that tens of thousands of people’s university degrees were collectively revoked simply because they were dissidents.

The impact of the incident I heard 9 years ago had not yet worn off, and I could not believe what I had just witnessed. Two similar examples I witnessed in March showed that it was imperative to record this issue in history. Dr. Reşit Haylamaz, a history researcher whose scientific work I follow closely, had joined another exiled journalist Bülent Korucu’s Youtube program at the beginning of March.

The topics he talked about in the program astonished the audience. While preparing his documents for a visa application to the USA, he could not believe what he saw on the official website of The Council of Higher Education (YÖK) . He saw that not only his university diploma, but also his master’s and doctorate diplomas were canceled by elements of the Erdoğan Regime.

He takes the copies of these diplomas he has with him and goes abroad. However, when he opens his suitcase in the country he goes to, he encounters another surprise. He sees that all of his official documents that were in the suitcase he had brought to the plane were stolen from his suitcase by the regime’s officials at the Istanbul airport. We read a lot of news in the newspapers about valuables being stolen from suitcases at airports, but this is the first time we hear about someone else’s diplomas being stolen so that he will have difficulty in the country he goes to.

Every immigrant and refugee brings their own story to the country they go to. When I decided to write about this topic for my April article after watching the program, a similar event that shocked the world happened in Turkey. According to the Turkish Constitution, being a university graduate is required to be a presidential candidate. In all polls, the only candidate who could beat Erdoğan in the upcoming presidential election was Ekrem İmamoğlu, the Mayor of Istanbul, a city with a population of 18 million. His university degree, which he received 30 years ago, was also canceled on March 18, 2025.

When this decision was met with public backlash, hundreds of thousands of protesters gathered in front of the Istanbul Municipality building. They held a demonstration that lasted for days in support of Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu. The government was disturbed by this unexpected support. One of the most important characteristics of dictators is to accuse those who oppose them of being terrorists in order to intimidate and isolate them from society. Indeed, one day after his diploma was revoked, Ekrem İmamoğlu was detained on grounds including such a claim. He was still in prison when I wrote this article. It seems that he has been prevented from running against Erdoğan for the time being. We do not know how developments will take shape on this issue.

In the news published in the New York Times on March 24, which analyzed the events in Türkiye, it was stated that “Türkiye is officially a Republic, but Erdoğan has turned the country into an autocracy in recent years.”

European Parliament Turkey Rapporteur Nacho Sanchez Amor described the arrest of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu as “definitely one of the biggest blows to democracy in Türkiye.” However, these reactions and condemnations, which remain only in words, do not prevent the oppression in Turkey from continuing to increase.

It is possible to give thousands of examples of the oppression and injustices experienced in Turkey. However, yesterday there was news of a death in the media that made one feel sad. A philanthropist named Mustafa Said Türk, despite not having done anything that the law defines as a crime, was taken from his bed at home on a stretcher and thrown into prison just because he was a volunteer for a social movement opposing the Erdoğan Regime, despite being 86 years old and bedridden. He was very ill and was wearing diapers. He could not live without the help of others. News came yesterday that he had passed away. All examples of the social massacre called genocide are being experienced in Turkey. If there is migration or mass escape from a country, we need to question the reasons for this. It is humanity’s duty to embrace people fleeing oppression.

There is a fact that in countries with underdeveloped democracy, strong opposition leaders emerge from among people who have been through prison. When they come to power, they do the same thing to their own opponents. This political cycle still continues in many countries.

There is an idiom in Turkish that means, “Even he would be very surprised if he heard this.” The original of this idiom is; “If he heard this, he would turn over in his grave.” It is not known where Hitler’s grave is, but if the most notorious dictators of the last 50 years, Libyan leader Gaddafi and Iraqi leader Saddam, heard about what happened in Turkey, they would probably turn over in their graves in astonishment. They would be surprised why they did not think of such a cunning method as revoking diplomas to destroy their opponents.

Let our final words be this; It is not possible to say that the world is going well. The most powerful way to overcome evil is the solidarity of good people. Unless there is a common struggle against evil anywhere in the world, it is not possible to prevent the evils experienced in Türkiye from happening elsewhere. Common good feelings and efforts towards this will make the world beautiful. Let’s not discriminate between victims by considering differences in religion, belief and nationality. Let’s stand up for them wherever there is oppression and human rights violation, no matter who they are.

Written by Prof. Dr. Osman OZSOY