Turkish university annuls Erdogan rival's degree, preventing run for president
57 comments
·March 18, 2025overfeed
In other, recent, non-related news, Columbia University revoked the diplomas of some pro-Palestine protestors[1]. The CBS headline buries the lede, but revoking diplomas is not too low for American universities.
1. https://www.cbsnews.com/newyork/news/columbia-university-pro...
7e
Their diplomas were not revoked for being pro-Palestine, they were revoked for seizing a building, trespassing and vandalism. That's a false equivalence to what is happening in Turkey.
overfeed
2 questions:
1. Why now (for Columbia)?
2. Why now (for Turkey)?
The fact that it's in the realm of possibility that the answer is the same for both (political expedience) is a stain on America/Columbia U.
infamouscow
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srslythrowaway
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aiono
I am from Turkey and this really concerns me. If we don't protest this in the streets and fight back I am afraid we don't have any kind of law anymore.
fracus
Isn't this just the latest cut in your democracy's death by a thousand cuts?
HenryBemis
I'd add also a thousand bullets, a thousand tortures, a thousand rapes, and a thousand days in prison for having a different opinion and expressing it.
throwaway3485t8
Given that people are being arrested for the most stupid reasons in Turkey, I can understand people not wanting to put their life on the line. 10 years ago I could have seen people protesting (see Gezi park protests) but now ? Not really.
What's worse is that somehow plenty of Turk are fine with it. Inflation above 100% for long time, crappy salaries, people can't even afford rents but the leader's party still get about 30% of the votes.
This is also a lesson for fellow Americans: don't think that just because Trump won't be able to lower the price of the eggs, will make rural voters miserable and make America a worse place means that at the next election you get rid of him. Once the environment is set up properly, anything can be justified, and with the right mindset the voter will accept any bullshit. Remember, "we always have been at war with Eastasia"
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TrackerFF
Equally shitty is the fact that 27 other people probably got their degrees annulled, just as a cover your ass measure from the unis side.
amadeuspagel
The really interesting news here is that in Turkey you need a degree to run for president.
wnevets
I'm sure it sounded like a good idea at the time but this proves once again these kind of limitations placed on leadership positions can and will be exploited.
anticensor
This is not only revoking his diploma, but establishing a very dangerous precedent in Turkey: "all rights are temporary and can be revoked on a whim"
iLoveOncall
This is absolutely nothing new for Turkey.
ReptileMan
That is not a precedent. That is just how things are done east of vienna and west of South Korea with some tiny exceptions.
hagbard_c
India is quite big. Any Indians around here want to comment on whether these shenanigans are common there? I have the impression they're not but maybe I'm wrong.
Talking about India, Lex Fridman interviewed Modi [1] recently, worth a listen or read.
addicted
India has its own set of political issues, but as far as I can tell nothing this egregious.
Lets consider the fact that after 10 years of Modi and the BJP having overwhelming majorities in Parliament, with Modi’s personally popularity close to all time highs, over a period where many external watchdogs essentially claimed democracy was dead in India, in an election where the BJP was expected to completely whitewash the opposition, not only did the BJP do worse than the previous election, they lost their standalone majority in parliament and had to form a government in coalition with other parties, and were a handful of seat losses away from losing to the opposition coalition.
In general the parliamentary system with a figurehead president as well as India’s extremely culturally diverse nature and weak federal government system, and strong judicial system, seems to have kept Indian democracy almost unreasonably effective relative to India’s poverty, education, and development levels.
necovek
That sounds like pretty arbitrary borders you are setting: I don't really see much difference between stuff happening West of Vienna and East of South Korea too (one of those countries has a president who basically tried to stage a coup, and now are back in power ignoring any rule of law).
gottorf
> one of those countries has a president who basically tried to stage a coup, and now are back in power ignoring any rule of law
President Yoon of South Korea has been suspended since December, as a result of the martial law incident and the following impeachment. (Actually, Yoon's prime minister, who first became acting President, was also impeached and suspended. It's someone else now.)
lynx97
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OKRainbowKid
Do you not see how preventing your opponent from running for election is different from temporary measures to protect people in a pandemic that has killed millions?
overfeed
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echoangle
Wow, you have to have a university degree to run for election as president? That’s a wild law.
darkhorn
Why it is a wow?
echoangle
Well at least in my opinion, it seems extremely undemocratic.
University education is a privilege that some people won’t be able to experience (financial constraints, having to care for relatives, …), and I don’t think it’s a unique qualifier for being a good president.
I think if people want to elect someone who didn’t go to university, they should be able to.
g8oz
Erdogan has turned the country into an electoral autocracy. The Swedish Varieties of Democracy centre released its annual report analyzing the state of democracies around the world as of the end of 2024. America is still listed as a liberal democracy. It's an open question whether it still will be by the end of next year.
pmags
The Trump administration is similarly trying to purge / stifle academic institutions and bend them to their uses.
For example, the Trump administration has told Columbia to dissolve specific academic departments. See this earlier discussion:
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43358925
The US and Turkish governments are operating under the same authoritarian rules of engagement, it's just that the Turks are further along the trajectory.
exabrial
Erdogan worries me as a NATO partner. They're incredibly important geopolitically.
The rule of law appears to be disappearing, and its turning into a Lukashenko/Putin situation.
starfezzy
Why did they annul it? I'm assuming they gave a reason, not sure if that's a reasonable assumption.
ozgung
Real reason: Opposition (CHP) is the first party since the local elections and it is almost certain that Imamoglu will replace Erdogan in the next elections. CHP primaries will be held this weekend and Imamoglu was the sole candidate.
Made-up reason: Imamoglu transfered to Istanbul University from a foreign university (Cyprus) in 1990. They claimed that university was not accredited by Turkish Higher Education Council. That was not really a requirement for the transfer at the time and the universities used to have more autonomy. Today they also annuled the degrees of 28 more people who did the same thing in 1990, just for the optics. I think one of them is a college professor.
advisedwang
Per the article:
> In a statement, the university said 38 people had transferred to its management faculty's English-language programme in 1990 in an irregular way.
> The graduations and degrees of 28 of them, including Imamoglu, were annulled as being "void" and due to "clear errors" regarding the regulations of the Higher Education Board (YOK), the school said.
mcphage
They annulled it so he couldn’t run against Ergodan.
walrus01
For a quick reference to anti-freedom-of-the-press and Internet censorship under Erdogan in Turkey, recently:
To add insult to injury, it could be the case that Erdogan's degree is fake [1]
(I don't know of a single Turkish person NOT voting for him that thinks that his degree is authentic)
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Recep_Tayyip_Erdo%C4%9Fan_univ...