My diploma-holding sweetheart

It has flared up again.

For 20 years, it has been all about diplomas.

During one of the periods when diplomas were highly valued, someone with a diploma—perhaps thinking, "I might become a presidential candidate, so I'll reduce the number of my rivals or block my brother-in-law who only has a high school degree"—added a clause to the law.

The president must be a university graduate.

That is not enough.

They also added that it must be a four-year faculty.

God forbid, they must have thought that if it were less than four years, one could not govern the country.

In other words, a three-year university diploma obtained from Germany is not acceptable either.

While studying in America, I witnessed some Turks who had graduated from American universities unable to go to Turkey due to military service requirements.

When I asked them why they didn't just go and do the short-term service, they said that because they finished university in three years by attending summer school here, they were required to do long-term military service as privates with only a high school diploma.

Some also said that because there was no equivalent for the Marketing Department in Turkey during those years, they faced equivalency issues and were again required to serve as long-term privates with high school diplomas rather than as short-term university-graduate privates.

In short, the nineties were very difficult years for Turkish youth. 

Students had started going abroad for educational purposes.

The system did not yet know how to categorize and evaluate students studying outside its "coop."

For that reason, it scrutinized their documents with extreme care.

Because it considered any irregular procedure an act of treason, it always tilted the scales in favor of the state.

Therefore, it examined transfers not just from America, but even from the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus with an electron microscope, never allowing any irregularities.

Of course, the system had loopholes. 

Even though I had gained admission to the Civil Engineering Department at Karadeniz Technical University with a score of 460, I had the right to transfer to the higher-scoring ITU Civil Engineering Department with a score of 490.

I had friends who did transfer.

That is no longer possible.

Transferring to a higher-scoring university is not possible; it is only possible to transfer to a lower one.

Anyway, the subject is overly complex, even for those in academia, let alone ordinary people.

Returning to the story,

Now, there is no problem because military service can be paid for, but I personally witnessed the suffering my peers endured.

I even witnessed someone being stripped of their citizenship because they didn't go to Turkey to perform military service, and now they are praying for the General Staff.

They have both become American citizens and become wealthy.

Once they became American citizens, they performed their military service through the paid exemption program.

And their wealth remained theirs to keep.

One of them even became a Regional President in California.

I think a similar fate awaits İmamoğlu from Akçaabat.