A new investigation into Istanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu was announced Saturday (February 22) by Istanbul’s Chief Prosecutor. The investigation concerns the alleged falsification of İmamoğlu’s university degree.

The new investigation is now the fifth pending legal case against the Istanbul mayor, who has been under mounting legal pressure of late. İmamoğlu has been called to give a statement on the matter this Wednesday (February 26).

Doubt regarding the authenticity of İmamoğlu’s university diploma first emerged in September 2024 when Erdem Atay, director of Veryansın TV, expressed suspicions regarding the mayor’s transfer from the Girne American University in Northern Cyprus to Istanbul University.

The suspicions voiced by Atay in September focus on the fact that İmamoğlu had studied engineering at Girne and then transferred to the management department in Istanbul. Additionally, Atay alleged that during the era in which Imamoğlu studied in the mid-1990s, the Girne American University was not accredited by Turkey’s Council of Higher Education (YOK).

Murat Ongun, an advisor of İmamoğlu’s, had responded to these claims by publishing copies of İmamoğlu’s degree from Istanbul University.

In a parliamentary debate on the matter in November, a representative of İmamoğlu’s Republican People’s Party (CHP) defended the authenticity of the mayor’s degree and invited those expressing doubts........

© Medyascope