Turkey has begun investigating allegations that İstanbul’s opposition mayor, Ekrem İmamoğlu, falsely obtained his university degree, the state-run Anadolu news agency reported Saturday.
İmamoğlu is already facing multiple legal proceedings.
The investigation comes just a day after İmamoğlu submitted his candidacy for the presidency under the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP). Anadolu reported that he will be questioned Wednesday over accusations of “falsification of an official document.”
Under Turkey’s constitution, presidential candidates must hold a higher education degree. President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has faced similar claims from opponents, which he has denied.
In response to allegations raised by a journalist, the Istanbul municipality last September published a photocopy of İmamoğlu’s business management diploma, which he received from İstanbul University in 1995.
İmamoğlu, who first won control of Turkey’s largest city from Erdoğan’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) in 2019 and was re-elected last year, is currently the subject of five other investigations. Two of these cases were opened last month.
Regularly targeted by Erdoğan, who also served as İstanbul mayor in the distant past, İmamoğlu was sentenced in December 2022 to almost three years in prison and a political ban for “insulting” members of Turkey’s High Electoral Board. He has appealed the ruling.
A vocal critic of Erdoğan, İmamoğlu last month denounced what he called judicial “harassment” after being questioned by an İstanbul court in another investigation related to his criticism of the city’s public prosecutor.