World
PRISON FOR A PRESIDENT WITHOUT A DIPLOMA
In the TRNC, Fatma Ünal was sentenced to five years in prison in a fake-diploma case and was arrested and sent to prison.
Fatma Ünal, chair of the women’s branch of the ruling National Unity Party in the TRNC and a close colleague of the prime minister, was sentenced to five years in prison in a fake-diploma case.
Ünal was arrested, handcuffed and sent to prison.
Füsun Cemaller, president of the Nicosia Assize Court, gave a critical message before the ruling.
“The sentences to be given for crimes of deceiving society also matter for confidence in justice,” she said.
The court that issued the ruling was made up of three women judges.
As part of the investigation, cases were also opened against a former minister, a member of parliament, a police director, a secretary to the interior minister, the president of the TRNC higher-education council, a TRT Cyprus correspondent and a lieutenant colonel, who were alleged to have obtained their diplomas irregularly and for money.
In Turkey, as you will recall, a case was opened against Deputy Minister of Youth and Sports and former AKP member of parliament Hamza Yerlikaya for using a fake high-school diploma.
Announcement of the verdict was deferred on condition that he commit no similar offence.
There is also a diploma case in Turkey against the detained Istanbul Metropolitan Mayor, Ekrem İmamoğlu.
And Tayyip Erdoğan’s diploma has been a subject of debate for years.
Erdoğan sued CHP leader Özgür Özel for damages on the grounds that Özel had joined in the “Erdoğan without a diploma” slogans at rallies.
At the hearing in February 2026, the judge, at the defence’s request, asked that Erdoğan’s diploma be submitted to the court file.
Erdoğan’s lawyers said the judge was acting out of “personal suspicion and curiosity” on the point and asked for the judge to be recused.
Writer Ergün Poyraz was also prosecuted for insulting Erdoğan because of his book titled Diplomasız, and he was sentenced.
In March 2025, however, the 4th Criminal Chamber of the Court of Cassation treated the words as “harsh criticism” and unanimously overturned the prison sentence.