10 diplomas of one official. The scandal of diploma counterfeits is rolling through Turkey

The breakdown of the gang in Turkey responsible for falsifying official documents, including university diplomas, hit the sensitive point of the state, undermining public trust to its institution – wrote the daily Financial Times.

The Minister of the Interior of Turkey Ali Yerlikaya announced last week that 197 suspects had been detained in the operations aimed at a gang of documents. “The investigation was revealed by 57 false university diplomas, 108 false driving licenses and four counterfeit diplomas of graduation.

According to the indictment, a group of fraudsters infiltrated E-Devlet, an online government service portal, and used electronic signatures of high-ranking officials for the production of dozens of false university diplomas and other official documents in exchange for payments reaching up to 2.5 million Turkish lira ($ 61,000).

The scandal ignited Turkish social media, which filled with memes and increased control of several high officials. The most famous among them is Omer Fatih Sayan, 48-year-old deputy minister of transport and infrastructure, which has 10 diplomas, including two master's degree and two doctorates. The politician has not yet proved the counterfeit of the document, and he himself assured that he was a supporter of learning throughout his life.

The scandal commented on, among others Imamogle, former mayor of Istanbul and the main rival of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The politician is in custody in connection with the corruption matter against him. His university also withdrew a few weeks ago a diploma, which prevents him from applying for the president's seat. Despite this, the imamogle is a candidate of the Republican People's Party (CHP) – the largest opposition party in the country – in the presidential election scheduled for 2028.

“The scale of the scandal is alarming, but for the government only my diploma and my presidential candidacy counts,” he wrote in social media imamogle. “The real problem is injustice,” he added.

President Erdogan accused the opposition of the pursuit of discreditation of state institutions by publicizing the gang's activities. Devlet Bahceli, a coalition partner of Erdogan, called the scandal “sinister plot”, which aims to “undermine social trust.”

The most emotions of counterfeit documents in Turkey include a fake diploma issued to the construction engineer, whose company won several infrastructure tenders. (PAP)

JBW/ Kar/