While he was a graduate student at Sabancı University Cultural Studies M.A. Program, Tevfik Karatop conducted an oral history interview with “uncle” Salih in Kayseri. Tevfik’s research digs into the idealized past that “uncle” Salih remembers and the dark past he resists forgetting.
Tevfik: “The time that I spent in Tavlusun, Kayseri conducting my oral history interview was one of the happiest times of my life. Especially the Lower Neighborhood where I found the opportunity to wander around while listening to Uncle Salih’s stories, reminded me of the lower neighborhoods in our history. I think we all need Uncle Salih’s stories about the times when Tavlusun was ‘united’. Although I used to have prejudices about oral history methodology, today, it is the method that guides me the best, combined with the ethnographic method. I owe a lot to Uncle Salih for letting me travel in his childhood and in the lower neighborhoods of the history.”
