Pm Erdogan Can't Be President: MHP's Halacoglu

Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) parliamentary group deputy chairman Yusuf Halacoglu argued on Thursday that Turkish PM Recep Tayyip Erdogan graduated from only three years of a vocational program, which is why he is not qualified to be president according to the constitution of Turkey.



According to article 101 of the Turkish constitution, "the President of the Republic shall be elected by the public from among the members of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey who are over forty years of age and have completed higher education, or from among Turkish citizens who fulfill these requirements and are eligible to be parliamentary deputies."



Holding a press conference at the Parliament, Halacoglu said that the academy of economics and administrative sciences of Marmara University was only a three-year faculty while PM Erdogan studied there, granting only vocational licenses and not undergraduate degrees. Halacoglu added, "For this reason PM Erdogan cannot become President, according to the Turkish constitution."



PM Erdogan graduated from Marmara University's Faculty of Economics and Commercial Sciences in 1981.



Halacoglu said that Erdogan's academy was converted to a four-year faculty after 1980, and stressed, "If it were a four-year faculty, PM Erdogan should show his diploma."



Halacoglu recalled that the faculty building burnt down and the faculty archives were destroyed, adding, "The people who have subsequently applied for the faculty have been awarded with diplomas."



englishnews@aa.com.tr - Ankara