Istanbul mayor Imamoglu has second degree revoked over Cyprus ties

Istanbul mayor Ekrem Imamoglu has had a second of his degrees revoked by Istanbul University, with the university on Monday night announcing that it had elected to cancel his master’s degree.

His bachelor’s degree had been revoked in March over a report which found that the university in northern Cyprus at which he began his studies before transferring to Istanbul was not adequately recognised.

At that time, Imamoglu was one of 28 people to have his degree revoked, with the university writing that it had revoked his degree on the strength of a report written by Turkey’s higher education council (Yok), though Monday night’s announcement appears to have only impacted Imamoglu.

According to Turkey’s Anadolu Agency, the decision was taken on the grounds that with his bachelor’s degree having been cancelled, Imamoglu no longer fulfilled the requirements to have begun studying for a master’s degree.

Imamoglu is currently incarcerated at the Silivri prison, which is located in the west of the Istanbul province, having been sentenced to 20 months in prison earlier this month for “insulting and threatening” Istanbul chief public prosecutor Akin Gurlek.

He had in January accused Gurlek of targeting opposition political figures through “politically motivated” investigations.

Prior to that, he had been held in detention since March, when he was one of 106 people to be arrested in connection with Turkish police investigations into the alleged illegal awarding of tenders, bid rigging, fraud, and bribery.

His arrest sparked protests across Turkey, with Turkish nationals living in Cyprus also taking to the streets.

Days after his arrest, his party the CHP formally nominated him to be its candidate at Turkey’s next presidential election, which must be held before June 2028, and for which it is a requirement for all candidates to hold at least a bachelor’s degree.

CHP leader Ozgur Ozel later claimed that the status of Cyprus was a key part of a deal brokered by Erdogan and United States President Donald Trump to allow the arrest of Imamoglu, and at the time referred to Imamoglu’s arrest as a “coup d’état” staged by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

“Recep Tayyip Erdogan received the permission for the March 19 coup d’état from Trump. The March 19 coup d’état was carried out with the support of the US. After the March 19 coup d’état, the Cyprus case was abandoned, in return for [the US] remaining silent about the March 19 coup d’état,” he said.

“No voice was raised when the Turkic republics recognised southern Cyprus,” he said, in reference to a joint declaration signed by Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, and non-Turkic Tajikistan with the European Union in April which ruled out the prospect of any of them recognising the north as an independent country.

As such, he said, “northern Cyprus was isolated, and what they called the ‘baby homeland’, to us, the ‘brother homeland’, was sold by the AK Party”.

Erdogan’s AK Party’s spokesman Omer Celik denied the accusations, describing them as “both a political lie and political incompetence”.

He added, “Ozgur Ozel’s questioning of our president’s sensitivity regarding the Turkish Cypriot cause and the TRNC is nothing but political ignorance”.

“Both our nation and the international community are well aware of our president’s sensitivity regarding the Turkish Cypriot cause and the TRNC.”

The joint declaration which precluded the Turkic states’ recognising of the north was signed in the Uzbek city of Samarkand earlier this month said all five countries “reaffirmed our strong commitment” to United Nations security council resolutions 541 and 550.

Resolution 541 said the security council “deplores the declaration of the Turkish Cypriot authorities of the purported secession of part of the Republic of Cyprus” while calling on UN member states not to recognise the north.

Resolution 550 said it “reiterates the call upon all states not to recognise the purported state of the ‘Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus’, set up by secessionist acts, and calls upon them not to facilitate or in any way assist the aforesaid secessionist entity”.