Diplomas will be the country's undoing

The same story has been playing out in Turkey for years:

Whose diploma is real, and whose is fake?

For years, the opposition said, “Erdoğan does not have a diploma; he cannot be president.”

The government, in turn, threw the ball into the other court, saying, “That is not how diploma debates work.”

The diploma of CHP’s Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality Mayor and presidential candidate Ekrem İmamoğlu, which he received 31 years ago, was canceled! Between “lateral transfer, non-quota, and grade point average” claims, both his diploma and his master’s degree were revoked.

While diploma feuds stir up storms in politics, we now have a brand-new scandal: a “fake diploma investigation.”

The scandal is so massive that it has led us to ask the question: “Whose diploma is actually real?”

One is left speechless by the details emerging from the fake diploma and e-signature investigation.

From descendants of the Ottoman dynasty to public figures giving “psychology” lessons on television screens… It turns out, who hasn’t had a fake diploma!

Just at this moment, an allegation from the opposition has further stirred the pot. It has turned the spotlight back onto politics.

CHP Deputy Chairman responsible for Foreign Affairs, retired diplomat Namık Tan, stated that there are serious question marks regarding the higher education degrees of former MIT Undersecretary and current Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan and Deputy Foreign Minister Nuh Yılmaz.

The debate has shifted to an entirely different dimension.

Believe me, that is not what matters. I don’t care about a politician’s diploma; I care about the diploma of the doctor I trust and entrust my life to!

In this country, we have suffered enough from the consequences of school affairs, stolen questions circulating from hand to hand, nepotism, and favoritism.

Just the other day, there was an LGS (High School Entrance Exam) scandal…

The Minister said, “We are explaining it as if to a simpleton, there is nothing to it,” but an investigation was opened, and what emerged was that there was indeed something to it. Then we saw that LGS questions were once again circulating in certain hands.

It was like this in the past, too.

Didn’t FETÖ, the greatest scourge in the history of the Republic, steal the rights of thousands of our youth?

Weren’t the questions given to children staying in cult dormitories by their ‘Big Brothers’?

Weren’t exams passed that way?

Weren’t diplomas handed out?

FETÖ is gone.

So who is doing these things now?

Is it Keto? Is it Çeto?

Finding names is easy; the issue is finding the morality we have lost!

We have reached such a point in forgery, injustice, nepotism, and violating others' rights that…

Our lives are now like those videos circulating on social media… You know, the ones made with artificial intelligence where even the Devil says, “I wouldn’t have thought of this much” regarding the events that have occurred.

Today, who is a real psychologist, who is a real doctor?

Who is a real pharmacist, forest engineer, financial expert, who is a lawyer, prosecutor, who is a judge?

And the real question: Who is a real human being? We don’t know…

We have always said, “The biggest problem of this country is merit.”

But we realized that the issue is not a lack of merit.

It turns out the real issue is that people without diplomas, without education, who know nothing, are sitting in those seats with the questions they stole, the diplomas they stole, and the lives they stole.

That is why our complaints, such as “Would a doctor say this?” or “Would an educator do this?” have no meaning. Because neither the educator was an educator, nor the doctor a doctor. They were the ones who stole others' white coats and blackboards…

The man who charged 4,500 TL for a consultation as a psychologist turned out to be a carpet cleaner, can you believe it? His diploma is fake…

He might be stepping on real Persian rugs with what he earned, but what are the patients he gave advice to stepping on?

So, what do we expect from the decisions made, the children educated, and the medications prescribed by those working in hospitals, courthouses, and schools with these fake diplomas?

The issue has now gone beyond fake diplomas.

As a society, we have started to become fake people.

Now I ask you:

In the shadow of all these scandals, who do you truly trust?

Don’t you look at everyone you meet with suspicion?

Are you sure the doctor you go to actually finished that school? Will you take the medicine they prescribed?

Do you know if the police officer who pulled you over in traffic entered the academy with a fake middle school diploma?

Are you sure the lawyer defending your rights graduated from law school?

What about the judge who makes the ruling?

We were used to fake cult leaders and fake sheikhs… But when we look to our left and right… We hadn’t realized that we were in the midst of such a fraud that we would suspect everyone and have no trust left in anyone, what a pity…