Letter
Open letter: A degree for Imamoglu
We appeal to all professors at universities in Italy and other countries to urge their academic institutions to confer honorary degrees or doctorates on the mayor of Istanbul.
Since Erdogan has been president of the Republic of Turkey, there has been a long string of arrests of militants, journalists, artists, lawyers or mere authors of social media posts considered “insults to the president of the Republic” or “support for terrorism.”
On March 19, Ekrem Imamoglu, mayor of Istanbul, posted a video on social media as dozens of police officers knocked on the door of his house. On Sunday, March 23, Ekrem Imamoglu was going to be nominated as a presidential candidate at the congress of his party, the CHP, a secular, nationalist party founded by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk.
Imamoglu's popularity began with his election as mayor of Istanbul in 2019. Erdogan had the election annulled, but two months later Imamoglu won again, even more resoundingly. Imamoglu was re-elected in a landslide in March 2024, although he had been sentenced to two years and seven months in prison and banned from political life in December 2022.
He was convicted as part of a trial in which he was accused of nothing more than responding to insults from the then-Interior Minister by calling him an “idiot.” The appeal is still ongoing. This time, the judges have indicted him on much heavier charges: he supposedly “runs a criminal organization” and “helps the PKK terrorist organization.”
One day earlier, Istanbul University announced that it would revoke the degree awarded to Imamoglu 35 years earlier, as the recognition of his move from the university course he began in Northern Cyprus to Istanbul University supposedly did not comply with administrative formalities.
The revocation would preclude Imamoglu from running for the presidency, as the Turkish Constitution requires all candidates to be university graduates. The mayor's arrest was accompanied by 106 others jailed across the city (including two district mayors), accused of alleged fraud in public procurement and of hiring people suspected of “terrorism” for alleged ideological ties to the Kurds of the PKK.
We appeal to all professors at universities in Italy and other countries to urge their academic institutions to confer honorary degrees or doctorates on the mayor of Istanbul.
To add your signature, write to dimafoni@ilmanifesto.it
Giso Amendola
Gaetano Azzariti
Filippo Barbera
Tommaso Baris
Paolo Borioni
Luciano Brancaccio
Giovanni Carrosio
Laura Cassi
Maria D’Agostino
Dimitri D’Andrea
Luigi Daniele
Claudio De Fiores
Juan Carlos De Martin
Maria Rosaria Ferrarese
Domenico Fruncillo
Francesca Governa
Davide Grasso
Elena Granata
Vincenzo Guarrasi
Laura Guazzone
Alfio Mastropaolo
Giampietro Mazzoleni
Enrica Morlicchio
Manuela Naldini
Salvatore Palidda
Francesco Pallante
Barbara Pezzini
Nicola Perugini
Michele Prospero
Paola Rivetti
Franca Roncarolo
Laura Ronchetti
Andrea Roventini
Angelo Salento
Ruba Salih
Luca Scuccimarra
Giorgia Serughetti
Francesco Strazzari
Gianfranco Viesti
Alessandra Algostino
Flavio Bacchetta
Gigi Perrone
Marlene Micheloni
Giorgio Mariani
Roberto Mamone
Mariaconcetta Biondi
Giuliana Mazzi
Alessandro Peregalli
Giovanni Dosi
Giovanni Ruocco
Marco Balsi
Ilaria Possenti
Renato Tubere
Maria Serena Piretti
Anna Cecconi
Terenzio Fava
Francesco Prota
Alessandra Mamone
Matteo Capanni
Eleonora Venneri
Marco Labbate
Laura Di Placido
Flavio Del Santo
Manuel M. Buccarella
Paola Leone
Caterina Graziadei
Cristina Letizia
Angela Perulli
Adriana Apostoli
Costantino Visconti
Maria Tinacci Mossello
Valentina Favarò
Camilla Gaiaschi
Giovanni Torrente
Ida Fazio
Stefania Consigliere
Domenico Cerosimo
Silvia Mazzuca
Laura Corradi
Luigi Piccioni
Davide Bertaccini
Giovanna Gallo
Amedeo Cottino
Franca Roncarolo
Cristina Martella
Alberto Burgio
Ruba Salih
Chiara Maritato
Antonio Mastropaolo
Daniele Pompeiano
Domenico Bilotti
Francesco Iacopino
Luca Storti
Cinzia Ferrini
Vincenzo Scalia
Roberto Gallo
Carla Rossi
Lia Fubini
Riccardo Martinelli
Enrico Ferri
Gabriele Ciampi
Angela Fedi
Maria Grazia Meriggi
Chiara Volpato
Donatella della Porta
Patrizia Patrizi
Lapo Casetti
Paolo Heritier
Manlio Iofrida
Anna Carreri
Carlo Gentili
Davide Camarrone
Persio Tincani
Massimo De Carolis
Eliana de Giorgi
Mia Garré
Enzo Fimiani
Gherardo Piacitelli
Roberto Aringhieri
Carla Palmieri
Paola Mamone
Stefano Boni
Alessandro Giacone
Felice Blando
Marina Lalatta
Ferruccio Damiani
Mariangiola Dezani-Ciancaglini
Chiara Marchetto
Federico Chicchi
Stefano Lucarelli
Adriano Mamone
Raffaele Cattedra
Gianpaolo Pulcini
Francesca Vianello
Antonello Petrillo
Marcello Maneri
Sandro Natalini
Raffaella Torcini
Pietro Causarano
Stefania Ferraro
Marco Bruno
Michele Sorice
Giuseppe Ricotta
Anna Simone
Originally published at https://ilmanifesto.it/una-laurea-per-imamoglu on 2025-03-23