A diploma reward for Aydın Ayaydın?

I knew Aydın Ayaydın, whom AKP Chairman and President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan nominated for the Muğla Metropolitan Municipality, quite well.

Because we worked together for a period at VATAN newspaper. While I was writing about politics and the agenda, he was penning two economic columns a week.

Aydın Bey is 73 years old today...

He is a graduate of the Istanbul Academy of Economic and Commercial Sciences... After this Academy was renamed Marmara University following the 1980 coup, he completed his master's degree in economics at the Institute of Social Sciences in 1983.

In 1985, he became a doctor of economics.

He received the titles of assistant professor in 1986, associate professor in 1988, and professor of econometrics in 1993 at the Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences, Department of Econometrics.

In 1992, he was appointed as a member of the Council of Higher Education (YÖK) by the President of the time, Turgut Özal. Subsequently, he served as President of the Banks Association, General Manager and Chairman of the Board of Emlakbank, General Manager of Vakıfbank, General Manager of Şekerbank, Board Member of İş Bank, Industrial Development Bank, and Industrial Investment Bank, Board Member of the Economic Development Foundation and Economic Research Foundation, Chairman of the Board of Hür Sigorta and Güneş Sigorta, Deputy Chairman of the Board of Şeker Sigorta, and Founding President of the Competition Authority.

He began his career as a columnist at Takvim newspaper. Then he moved to Sabah, and from there to Vatan newspaper.

Additionally, he served as Vice President and Press Spokesperson for Beşiktaş between 1997 and 1999.

His political life has also been quite active...

In 1995, he was a parliamentary candidate for the True Path Party (DYP) but was not elected.

In the 1999 and 2002 elections, he became an Istanbul MP for ANAP.

In the 2011 elections, he was elected as an Istanbul MP, this time for the CHP.

Now, he has switched to the AKP.

In the meantime, let me provide a piece of information that does not often appear in his biography:

Aydın Bey is also the older brother of Yalçın Ayaydın, the owner of the famous Ipekyol firm...

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To tell you the truth, if someone had told me one day that Aydın Bey would join the AKP and be nominated for mayor by this party, I would have laughed it off.

Because, as I said, I worked with him between 2004 and 2011, and I am one of those who know his thoughts on this party best.

He was wholeheartedly opposed to both the political policies and the economic program implemented by the AKP.

In almost every column, he criticized the AKP's actions in the harshest terms.

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The only incident regarding him that I have doubts about is the testimony he gave out of the blue for Recep Tayyip Erdoğan—whose diploma was under debate—even while he was a CHP MP!

Yes; during the presidential candidacy process of Erdoğan, when the diploma scandal erupted, Aydın Ayaydın testified that Erdoğan was a four-year university graduate.

I was writing about this diploma issue almost every day.

After Aydın Bey, who wrote in my own newspaper and was also a CHP MP, came forward and said, “I both attended the Prime Minister's classes and conducted his exams for four years. Therefore, the Prime Minister is a four-year university graduate,” I became unable to write on this subject.

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Now, as a former colleague, I say this:

The issue of the fake diploma, which is Erdoğan's weakest point, was closed thanks to the “testimony” you gave in his favor.

First, your daughter being elected as an Istanbul MP from this party, and now your surprise AKP Muğla Metropolitan Municipality candidacy, are being interpreted as a kind of “reward for perjury”...

As a former colleague who believed in you, this bothers me terribly.

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Come on, Aydın Bey; tell us about this “diploma” issue once more...

For all these years, no other professor of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has come forward besides you...

Not a single person has come out and said, “I am his classmate from university. Here are the photos we took together.”

Moreover, it turned out that even the dates you provided regarding your own assistantship were incorrect...

By the way; are your daughter's parliamentary seat and your candidacy a kind of reward?

Even if that is not the case, were you not at all concerned that suddenly becoming a candidate for this party, which you never approved of and constantly criticized, would lead to such interpretations?