Turkey’s Sakarya mayor ‘lied about getting degree in Cyprus’

Yusuf Alemdar, the mayor of Turkey’s Sakarya municipality, which is located on the country’s Black Sea coast, lied about having obtained a degree in Cyprus, according to reports on Monday.

The Sakarya municipality’s website states that Alemdar graduated with a degree in business administration from Famagusta’s Eastern Mediterranean University, but veteran journalist Levent Ozadam on Monday reported that this is not the case.

He said he had been alerted to the issue by an academic at the university, who “did some research” in the university’s archives and found no record that Alemdar had ever studied at or obtained a degree from the university.

Alemdar belongs to Turkey’s ruling AK Party, and was elected to the role for the first time at Turkey’s local elections in 2024, though he did win more than 100,000 votes fewer than his predecessor Ekrem Yuce, also of the AK Party, had in 2019 on a historically good night for opposition parties.

The Cyprus Mail reached out to both the Eastern Mediterranean University and the north’s higher education accreditation institution (Yodak) but received no response.

Questions regarding mayors’ studies in Cyprus are nothing new to Turkish politics, with Istanbul University having last year revoked the degree of the now suspended Istanbul mayor Ekrem Imamoglu over the fact that he had begun his university studies at the Girne American University in Kyrenia.

The reason given for the revocation of the degree was that Turkey’s higher education council (Yok) deemed the Girne American University not to be adequately recognised for him to have been able to later transfer to Istanbul.

Imamoglu had attempted to challenge that ruling at Istanbul’s fifth administrative court last month, but the court rejected his case.

He was arrested one day after his degree was revoked, and remains incarcerated at the Silivri prison, having been sentenced to 20 months behind bars in July last year for insulting and threatening Istanbul’s chief public prosecutor Akin Gurlek, having accused him of targeting opposition political figures through “politically motivated” investigations.

In addition, he has been charged with a long list of offences including forgery and leading a criminal organisation. If found guilty on all counts, he could face a sentence lasting more than 2,000 years.

Many in Turkey and further afield have said the revocation of his degree and his subsequent arrest were politically motivated, and his arrest sparked protests across Turkey, with hundreds of 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.