President Erdoğan Receives 44th Honorary PhD, His Diploma Still Disputed

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President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has been awarded honorary PhD by Makarere University in Uganda which is his first stop in Eastern Africa visit.

The number of honorary PhDs of Erdoğan has risen to 44.

Erdoğan’s diploma is being disputed

On the other hand, the disputes on Erdoğan’s diploma are persisting.

Journalists Arzu Yıldız being tried over insulting the President Erdoğan had demanded in the court that Erdoğan’s diploma be requested from the Marmara University. Yıldız in her plea had said, “If the diploma is fabricated, then it is an evidence in favor and the case drops; if not, then the President will be cleared and this dispute in public ends”.

Following the discussions sparked upon this, it has come to the agenda that access to the diploma archive of the Marmara University was denied upon the ruling of İstanbul Anadolu 5th Criminal Court of Peace blocked access on July 18, 2014.

The ban order issued right before the presidential elections was revoked upon the objection.

Today the archive is accessible. There is no record as to Erdoğan in the system search but it is unknown whether the archive includes all diplomas.

Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) MP, Yusuf Halaçoğlu as well had alleged in June 2015 that Erdoğan’s diploma was fake.

“I am telling the President Erdoğan that your diploma is fake, he doesn’t sue me. If it were something else, he would have done that a long time ago. In order to become President, one has to graduate from a four-year faculty, the Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences in Sultanahmet was a three-year faculty at the time of his graduation”.

Following Halaçoğlu’s statement, Erdoğan had shared his diploma. There were remarks on social media that the diploma was fabricated. (EKN/TK)

Photo: Musa Özyürek, AA