The metropolitan mayor of Istanbul could face a new trial if the investigation opened by the Istanbul public prosecutor’s office proves successful. The prosecutor’s office is accusing Ekrem İmamoğlu of ‘forgery of official documents’ for allegedly fixing a university degree that would be fake.
Turkish media sources reported that the Istanbul chief prosecutor’s office has opened the investigation following a report issued by the Council of Higher Education of Turkey (YÖK), which presented evidence that the university degree that the current mayor claims to have was obtained illegally and forged.
The website of the opposition CHP party indicates that İmamoğlu graduated in 1994 from the Faculty of Business Administration at the Istanbul University, after transferring in 1990 from the American University of Girne, in northern Cyprus. However, YÖK does not recognise the qualifications issued by that university, so according to this information the validation of his studies and his subsequent registration and graduation at the Istanbul University would have been against the law.
Without a university degree, İmamoğlu cannot be President of Turkey
İmamoğlu, mayor for the main opposition party CHP, faces several legal proceedings including a trial scheduled to take place next April in which he is accused of threatening the chief prosecutor of Istanbul, Akın Gürlek, for which he faces a possible sentence of up to 7 years and 4 months in prison and disqualification from holding public office. He is also being investigated for allegedly rigging a municipal licence, and also for insulting members of the Supreme Electoral Council, among other offences.
Precisely, in what many analysts believe to be an attempt to obtain legal immunity, İmamoğlu announced on Friday that he will stand in the primary elections that his party will hold in March to become a candidate for President of Turkey in the 2028 elections, in which he could face Erdoğan himself.
If it is finally confirmed that the mayor of Ankara, Mansur Yavaş, will not stand in the CHP primaries, the candidacy of the now mayor of Istanbul has a good chance of winning. However, by law in Turkey the President of the Republic must have a university degree in order to hold the post; so, if it is finally proven that his university degree is fake, his plans to stand for the presidential elections in three years’ time could be seriously compromised.
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Edited and reviewed by:
Pablo Gómez is a specialist in Turkey and has been editor-in-chief of Hispanatolia since 2011. He has been analysing current affairs and geopolitics in Turkey and the surrounding region since 2006.
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