İstanbul’s jailed and suspended Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu, the opposition’s presidential candidate whose arrest in March led to mass protests against the Turkish government, has filed a lawsuit challenging İstanbul University’s decision to revoke his university diploma, the Velev news website reported.
The lawsuit was filed Tuesday at the İstanbul Administrative Court by İmamoğlu’s legal team, which claims the cancellation of his 31-year-old degree was politically motivated and legally baseless.
İmamoğlu was detained on March 19, one day after İstanbul University voided his diploma, and was subsequently arrested, triggering widespread outrage among his supporters.
The revocation of his diploma makes him ineligible to run for president. İmamoğlu is seen as the main rival of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and leads him in all polls gauging presidential election results.
Erdoğan constitutionally can’t run for a third term, but many expect the leader to find a work-around or push his candidacy with an illegal fait accompli.
Erdoğan himself faced accusations of lacking a legitimate university degree, with some people claiming that his degree was retroactively forged to look like he had the degree required to run for president.
İmamoğlu’s lawyer, Mehmet Pehlivan, said the decision to revoke the mayor’s degree violated Turkey’s constitutional principles and amounted to an abuse of administrative power.
Pehlivan said the timing of the lawsuit — May 6 — was intentional, marking the anniversary of what opposition groups see as a key moment of democratic suppression in Turkey.
On May 6, 2019, Turkey’s top election board controversially annulled İmamoğlu’s first victory in the İstanbul mayoral race, a move widely seen as politically driven.
“This is not just a legal effort to protect Mr. İmamoğlu’s personal rights,” Pehlivan said. “It is also a struggle to defend the rule of law and constitutional freedoms in Turkey.”
İmamoğlu is currently in pretrial detention in Silivri Prison outside İstanbul, following his arrest on corruption charges amid broader criminal investigations targeting the opposition-led İstanbul Metropolitan Municipality.
Prosecutors claim İmamoğlu ran a criminal organization for financial gain, an accusation he and his party strongly deny.
In a message shared on social media, İmamoğlu said the people who tried to annul his election in 2019 are now attempting to erase his academic credentials.
He called the revocation part of a broader political effort to silence dissent.
“The nation that defended its will at the ballot box in İstanbul will hold accountable those who staged this diploma plot,” İmamoğlu wrote. “Never doubt — we will win, together.”
The case has added fuel to protests that have swept across major Turkish cities since İmamoğlu’s arrest in March, with demonstrators calling for fair elections, an independent judiciary and an end to political prosecutions.
The Republican People’s Party, Turkey’s main opposition party, nominated İmamoğlu as its presidential candidate just hours after his arrest.