Ekrem Imamoglu’s chances of contesting the Turkish presidency look less likely after a court rejected his appeal to overturn an earlier ruling that revoked his university diploma.
A mayoral election campaign poster for Ekrem Imamoglu in Istanbul, March 2024. Photo: EPA-EFE/ERDEM SAHIN.
Jailed Istanbul mayor and presidential candidate Ekrem Imamoglu, of the main opposition Republican People’s Party, CHP, on Monday lost his appeal to overturn an earlier court decision that revoked his university diploma.
“The Regional Court of Appeals ruled to reject the appeal application … finding that the Administrative Court’s decision subject to appeal was in compliance with procedural rules and the law, and that the claims raised in the appeal petition were not of a nature requiring the annulment of that decision,” the court ruling said.
In March 2025, Istanbul University revoked Imamoglu’s bachelor diploma in business administration, claiming irregularities over his transfer to the university from a university in Northern Cyprus.
Imamoglu’s lawyers say he transferred to Istanbul University using an official application in accordance with the laws and regulations at the time. This explanation was not deemed sufficient by the courts.
“The errors committed by the administration during the process of granting the horizontal transfer opportunity were not at the level of inadvertent mistakes or oversights resulting from negligence; moreover, it was considered contrary to the ordinary course of life that the plaintiff would have been unaware of such seriously flawed and unlawful circumstances,” the Administrative Court in Istanbul ruled earlier.
Imamoglu’s only option now is to challenge the decision before the Council of State, the country’s highest appeals court in administrative cases. But if this court also approves the decision, Imamoglu’s diploma will not be considered valid and he will not be allowed to run for the office of president.
In recent years, dozens of CHP mayors and hundreds of party members have been arrested on corruption and terror charges. Those include the arrest of Imamoglu himself on March 19, 2025. The prosecutor’s office is demanding a 2,352-year prison sentence for him. The CHP denies all the charges
Opposition politicians, rights groups and international organisations have said that President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s government is using the judiciary to crush political rivals in what they describe as an unprecedented crackdown.
