A Turkish university said Tuesday that İstanbul’s opposition mayor, Ekrem İmamoğlu — already the target of a number of court cases — falsely obtained his degree.
İstanbul University said the degrees of 28 graduates including İmamoğlu — a major rival of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan — “will be withdrawn and cancelled on the grounds of … obvious error,” it said on X.
The ruling could deprive him of the chance to challenge Erdoğan for the presidency — an office that requires a higher education degree.
İmamoğlu, who is in his second term as mayor of Turkey’s largest city from the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), is likely to fight the decision in court.
He called the decision “unlawful” on his X account, saying that the university’s board of directors do not have the authority to make such a decision as only the issuing faculty has the authority to revoke it.
“The days when those who made this decision will be held accountable before history and justice are near. The march of our nation, thirsty for justice, law and democracy, cannot be stopped. There is no salvation alone!” he said.
Murat Emir, a lawmaker from CHP, said the university’s decision has dealt a “heavy blow” to Turkish democracy.
The mayor’s office published a photocopy of a business management diploma that İmamoğlu received from İstanbul University in 1995 after a journalist claimed he did not have one.
The opposition mayor is the subject of multiple investigations and court cases in advance of the presidential election in 2028.
Regularly targeted by Erdoğan, who was also a mayor of İstanbul, İmamoğlu was sentenced to almost three years in prison and banned from political activities in 2022 for “insulting” members of Turkey’s Supreme Election Board, a sentence he has appealed.
A vocal opponent of the president, İmamoğlu denounced what he termed judicial “harassment” in January upon leaving an İstanbul court where he had been questioned as part of an investigation opened after criticism of the city’s public prosecutor.
İstanbul University said it was sending documents to the İstanbul prosecutor’s office as well as the high education council.
© Agence France-Presse