A Turkish university said Tuesday that Istanbul’s mayor Ekrem Imamoglu — a rival of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and already the target of a clutch of court cases — falsely obtained his university degree.
The ruling could deprive him of the chance to challenge Erdogan for the presidency — an office which requires a higher education degree.
Imamoglu slammed the decision as “unlawful” and said the board of Istanbul University had no authority to make such a decision.
“The days when those who made this decision will be held accountable before history and justice are near,” the popular mayor said on X.
“The march of our nation, thirsty for justice, law and democracy, cannot be stopped,” he vowed.
Imamoglu, who is in his second term as mayor of Turkey’s largest city, is likely to fight the decision in court.
Erdogan has repeatedly faced claims that he never graduated from university himself, and thus should not be president, claims he and officials have rejected.
– ‘Imamoglu is our candidate’ –
Istanbul University said the degrees of 28 graduates including Imamoglu “will be withdrawn and cancelled on the grounds of… obvious error”, it said on X.
Main opposition CHP leader Ozgur Ozel condemned the decision as a “black stain” and said the university’s decision would not stop the party from fielding Imamoglu as a presidential candidate in 2028.
Imamoglu “is our presidential candidate”, Ozel said, with primaries to pick an opposition candidate due to be held on Sunday.
Ozel hoped that the decision would be reversed by court “as soon as possible”.
“The action taken is not legal, but political… we stand behind Ekrem Imamoglu”.
Murat Emir, a lawmaker from Imamoglu’s CHP party, said: “This decision has dealt a heavy blow to our democracy.”
The mayor’s office has previously published a photocopy of a business management diploma which Imamoglu received from Istanbul 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 the run up to presidential elections in 2028.
Regularly targeted by Erdogan, who was also a mayor of Istanbul, Imamoglu was sentenced to two years and seven months in jail and banned from political activities in 2022 for “insulting” members of Turkey’s High Electoral Committee, a sentence he has appealed.
A vocal opponent of the president, Imamoglu denounced what he termed judicial “harassment” in January on leaving an Istanbul court where he had been questioned as part of an investigation opened after criticism of the city’s public prosecutor.
Istanbul University said it was sending documents to the Istanbul prosecutor’s office as well as the high education council.
