[HN Gopher] Turkish university annuls Erdogan rival's degree, pr...
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Turkish university annuls Erdogan rival's degree, preventing run
for president
Author : perihelions
Score : 156 points
Date : 2025-03-18 20:31 UTC (2 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.reuters.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.reuters.com)
| anticensor wrote:
| 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 wrote:
| This is absolutely nothing new for Turkey.
| ReptileMan wrote:
| That is not a precedent. That is just how things are done east
| of vienna and west of South Korea with some tiny exceptions.
| necovek wrote:
| 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 wrote:
| > 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.)
| ReptileMan wrote:
| He was talking about Trump
| hagbard_c wrote:
| 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.
|
| [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43405546
| eggsome wrote:
| https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zero-rupee_note
| addicted wrote:
| 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.
| harshreality wrote:
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hardeep_Singh_Nijjar
| blitzar wrote:
| > "all rights are temporary and can be revoked on a whim"
|
| That is the basis on which practically everything I have
| purchased from American companies (or their subsidiary in a tax
| haven) exists.
| khazhoux wrote:
| Everything?? Or do you just mean digital media?
| overfeed wrote:
| > This is not only revoking his diploma, but establishing a
| very dangerous precedent in Turkey
|
| It appears Turkey is in good company in the US: Columbia
| University (New York, US) recently retroactively revoked the
| diplomas of some protestors.
| https://www.cbsnews.com/newyork/news/columbia-university-pro...
| lynx97 wrote:
| > all rights are temporary and can be revoked on a whim
|
| Isn't that what we've learnt from COVID-19 measures around the
| world? Doesn't seem like a insight specific to Turkey or 2025.
| Bostonian wrote:
| I doubt the university did this for non-political reasons, and
| requiring a university degree to hold office is a bad idea
| anyway.
| anticensor wrote:
| See https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43404726, though, it
| sets a dangerous precedent: any right can be revoked anytime
| for any reason, nothing is truly earned.
| anigbrowl wrote:
| What happens if some foreign university confers an honorary
| degree on him?
| anticensor wrote:
| In Turkish educational system, honorary degrees are only
| applicable to the institute granting the degree itself. You
| instead need to have an earned degree to be able to use the
| privileges outside the institute granting the degree.
| Alive-in-2025 wrote:
| I'm sure this will come soon to the US with our new
| overlords looking for new dystopian ideas.
| thaumasiotes wrote:
| In the US, what are the privileges that you earn by
| possessing a degree?
| aiono wrote:
| 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 wrote:
| Isn't this just the latest cut in your democracy's death by a
| thousand cuts?
| ginko wrote:
| Wasn't aware that a university degree is a requirement to run for
| president in Turkey. I'm not aware of any other country that does
| that.
|
| edit: Wikipedia actually has a list[1]. Did you know you need to
| have a bank account to be eligible to become president of France?
|
| [1]
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_presidential_qualifica...
| Leherenn wrote:
| I googled a bit around because I found the requirement weird,
| and it's slightly misleading. Candidates need to have a
| separate bank account for the election, so that it can be
| monitored (there are various limits to how much funding they
| can get and so on as far as I understand).
| walrus01 wrote:
| For a quick reference to anti-freedom-of-the-press and Internet
| censorship under Erdogan in Turkey, recently:
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Censorship_in_Turkey
| bigmattystyles wrote:
| What was his degree in? The article doesn't say.
| zerocrates wrote:
| Business administration.
| starfezzy wrote:
| Why did they annul it? I'm assuming they gave a reason, not sure
| if that's a reasonable assumption.
| mcphage wrote:
| They annulled it so he couldn't run against Ergodan.
| advisedwang wrote:
| 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.
| echoangle wrote:
| Wow, you have to have a university degree to run for election as
| president? That's a wild law.
| g8oz wrote:
| 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.
|
| https://www.v-dem.net
| throw3849490 wrote:
| Banning oposition over irregularities, is perfectly normal in
| mature democracy! It is a sign that democratic process works, and
| can heal itself! Ancient Athens have ostracism.
| seydor wrote:
| what does this have to do with ostracism? Ostracism was
| democratic, with secret vote, not a dictatorial obstruction of
| opposition
| overfeed wrote:
| 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...
| otikik wrote:
| That sounds so corrupt.
| amadeuspagel wrote:
| The really interesting news here is that in Turkey you need a
| degree to run for president.
| wnevets wrote:
| 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.
| throwaway3485t8 wrote:
| 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...
| seydor wrote:
| he has 2 years to get another degree
| motohagiography wrote:
| maybe they failed to take the requisite social media training to
| maintain it?
| TrackerFF wrote:
| 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.
| exabrial wrote:
| 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.
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(page generated 2025-03-18 23:00 UTC)