As Turkey reels from a major diploma fraud scandal, the main opposition CHP has turned its attention to Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan, questioning the validity of his academic credentials.
The debate carries particular significance since Istanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu’s diploma was revoked in March, and a new Foreign Ministry directive prioritizes academic titles and certifications over merit-based promotion.
CHP Deputy Chair Namık Tan, a former ambassador, challenged Fidan’s diploma and that of his deputy, Nuh Yılmaz. In response, Yılmaz accused Tan of using his diplomatic career to benefit his children. Tan shot back, accusing Yılmaz’s daughter of unlawfully enrolling in Istanbul High School—a case that reportedly reached the courts.
The exchange escalated after journalist Barçın Yinanç wrote for T24 that Yılmaz’s daughter ranked first in the ministry entrance exam. In a follow-up column, Tan questioned the high number of embassies opened despite staff shortage, Fidan’s failures during the suppression of the July 15 coup attempt, and his management of the ministry “as an intelligence institution.”
Not Fidan but Yılmaz accused Tan of inadequacy, saying he “lacks the necessary background.”
The Foreign Ministry dismissed the accusations as baseless. “The claim that the Council of Higher Education [YÖK] has not approved Foreign Minister Fidan’s diploma equivalency is false,” it said. It reaffirmed that Fidan earned his degree in Management and Political Science while stationed abroad and that YÖK issued a valid equivalency certificate.
Deputy Minister Yılmaz also shared his doctoral thesis online in an effort to prove his academic credentials.
However, Tan persisted, raising new doubts about the authenticity and equivalency of Fidan’s undergraduate degree from the University of Maryland University College (UMUC)—now known as the University of Maryland Global Campus (UMGC).
QUESTIONS ON EQUIVALENCY
Tan noted that UMUC, unlike the University of Maryland at College Park, was a distance-learning institution and questioned whether it even offered a Bachelor of Science in Political Science in the 1990s, as Fidan claims to hold. He criticized the format and quality of the diploma and equivalency certificate published by the Presidency’s Center for Combating Disinformation.
Citing Fidan’s military service abroad during the time he reportedly completed the degree, Tan asked how a full-time undergraduate program could be completed under such conditions. He called on YÖK to release detailed and unredacted documentation.
