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Oddly enough, the latest debate over İmamoğlu's degree echoes previous controversies over whether Erdogan himself had the necessary university degree to qualify as a presidential candidate.
Istanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu is facing dozens of investigations and court cases that authorities have filed against him. This is the price he is paying for emerging as the main rival of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
İmamoğlu, a charismatic 53-year-old secularist and one of Turkey's most popular politicians, is expected to become the opposition's presidential challenger this month at a meeting of his Republican People's Party (CHP) on March 23.
İmamoğlu has won three close races in Turkey's largest city - and significantly, the CHP last year managed to win back several traditional areas of Istanbul that Erdogan saw as reliable bastions for his Islamist AK Party.
Given these successes, it is no surprise that Erdogan's authorities have created a dizzying array of legal procedures to slow down İmamoğlu, or - in the extreme case - imprison him. He will appear before the prosecutor in one of the cases this week.
Istanbul is considered a particularly sensitive territory, as Erdogan himself used the position of mayor of the megacity as a springboard to secure power in a NATO heavyweight country of 85 million people.
İmamoğlu's lawyer, Mehmet Pehlivan, called the opening of court cases and investigations against the opposition leader "a broad legal offensive against the mayor's political activities."
He told POLITICO that since İmamoğlu became mayor six years ago, 42 administrative and 51 judicial investigations had been opened against him.
İmamoğlu himself says the president is seeking to sentence him to up to 25 years in prison.
The cases range from the serious to the surreal. One allegation is that he vandalized the tomb of Sultan Mehmed the Conqueror, who captured what was then Constantinople from the Byzantines more than half a millennium ago. Another is that the minibuses his administration bought were not suitable for the roads of the largest island in the Sea of Marmara near Istanbul.
Of the judicial investigations, which cover charges such as threats, misconduct in office, tender manipulation and bribery, 29 have so far been closed. Five are in the trial phase.
Soli Özel at the Institute for Humanities in Vienna said the flurry of legal activity reflects the growing influence of the Istanbul mayor.
"Today, İmamoğlu is the biggest threat to Erdogan's government or his chances of re-election," he said.
Presidential elections are due to be held by 2028, but the AK is on the back foot after a poor performance in last year's provincial elections.
Erdogan has accused the CHP of theft, corruption and irregularities, claiming that non-AK media are whitewashing the opposition.
With the CHP on track to nominate İmamoğlu as the party's presidential candidate on March 23, all eyes and attention are on his appearance before a prosecutor this week.
This hearing is supposed to provide evidence about his 1994 university degree and whether it was forged. The timing may not be coincidental, as the degree is part of the documentation for a presidential bid. The Istanbul chief prosecutor's office launched the investigation on February 22 following a report from Turkey's higher education council examining his transfer from one university to another.
İmamoğlu's supporters say the document is not a forgery. "The government's tactics are clear," said Turan Taşkın Özer, a CHP deputy for Istanbul. "By putting pressure on the judiciary, they are opening unimaginable processes. Sometimes, legal principles are completely overturned," he added.
The mayor of Istanbul already has a prison sentence. In 2022, a judge ruled that he should spend two years and seven months in prison for insulting election authorities who annulled the 2019 vote in which he first won the post of mayor of Istanbul.
Since the case is under appeal, İmamoğlu is still free – but his lawyer Pehlivan described it as an attempt to prevent him from running in the upcoming elections.
Oddly enough, the latest debate over İmamoğlu’s degree echoes earlier controversies over whether Erdogan himself had the necessary university degree to qualify as a presidential candidate. (The Turkish constitution specifies that the president must be over 40 and have completed higher education.)
But Murat Yetkin, founder of YetkinReport, an independent news newspaper, argued that Erdogan perceives the Istanbul mayor as a threat precisely because he is his opposite.
"In almost all cases presented, there is a request for a prison sentence sufficient to impose a ban" on the politician running for the Presidency, Yetkin said.
He added that the CHP's other leading future presidential candidate, Mansur Yavaş - the mayor of Ankara, could face similar legal challenges.
"We are fighting against a despotic system that sees eliminating political opponents by any means necessary as a legitimate approach," said Özer, the Istanbul parliament member. /Adapted from Politico/
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