Turkish President **Recep Erdoğan** started paving the way for his re-election with a suspicious move against his main rival – the Mayor of Istanbul, **Ekrem Imamoglu** – a substantial figure from the democratic opposition. Turkey’s government-led Higher Education Board missed some irregularities in the mayor’s educational history, and Istanbul University had to annul Ekrem Imamoglu’s university diploma. This can prevent Imamoglu, who comes from the PES-associated member party CHP (Republican People’s Party), from running in the presidential elections against Erdogan. Türkiye’s law requires presidential candidates to hold a valid university degree.
PES Secretary General **Giacomo Filibeck** said:
> “This is yet another attempt of President Erdoğan to crack down on the democratic opposition in Türkiye. At the PES, we already condemned all attempts of the Turkish government to revoke legally elected mayors from the democratic opposition. Now, Erdoğan is using the educational authorities to prevent an opposition candidate from running for president. We stand by our member party CHP, by its leader Özgür Özel, by Ekrem Imamoglu and call for democracy and the rule of law to be respected.”
Another strong opposition figure – Ankara Mayor **Mansur Yavas**, also CHP, announced that he is suspending his presidential candidacy in solidarity with Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu. The bogus diploma retraction comes days before the scheduled CHP primaries on March 23rd.
Since the local elections in 2024, the mayors of the biggest cities in Turkey are from the opposition – a significant defeat for Erdoğan. PES-associated member party CHP won in Istanbul, Ankara, and almost all of Western Türkiye, and DEM (Peoples’ Equality and Democracy Party) managed to secure victory in Diyarbakır and many key cities in Eastern Türkiye.
The next presidential elections in Türkiye are scheduled for 2028.