Yekta Saraç, who was appointed as the chairman of Turkey’s Higher Education Board (YÖK) on Nov. 11, 2014, has been reappointed to the position by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
Saraç, who was first named a YÖK member on Oct. 19, 2005, has been working with the board since then.
The name of Yekta Saraç’s brother, Fatih Saraç, attracted public attention when a voice recording leaked on the Internet on June 4, 2014 showed that Erdoğan, then prime minister, called the editor of Haberturk TV, Fatih Saraç, and asked him to remove a news scroll quoting Nationalist Movement Party leader (MHP) Devlet Bahçeli.
The recording was telling in that it revealed Erdoğan’s censorship of the media and how his words were immediately perceived as an order by the TV director, who was quoted as saying: “Yes, yes, OK sir, I will get to it right away, sir,” in response to Erdoğan’s “You must do it immediately.”
Another voice recording that was leaked on the Internet on Feb. 8 revealed Erdoğan calling Saraç to stop the live broadcasting of a press conference by Bahçeli.