Main opposition deputy accuses government of favoring deputy PM’s relative

ANKARA - Hürriyet Daily News

Deputy Prime Minister Bekir Bozdağ. DHA Photo

Republican People’s Party (CHP) deputy Sezgin Tanrıkulu has called for a parliamentary inquiry to investigate claims that Necla Bozdağ, a relative of Deputy Prime Minister Bekir Bozdağ, received preferential treatment in being admitted to Yıldırım Beyazıt Univeristy’s Medicine Faculty.

Tanrıkulu’s inquiry questioned whether or not Necla Bozdağ became the first student following a regulatory change to bypass university entrance examinations because she studied at a foreign high school preparatory to her admission to Yıldırım Beyazıt.

Tanrıkulu further claimed that a recent Cabinet decision which exempted a small group of students from paying university fees also allowed Necla Bozdağ to avoid a fee of 90,000 Turkish Liras in return for six years of education at the university.

The CHP deputy described the incident as “unfair to hundreds of thousands of young people” while asking the government benches whether or not they were “making up laws and regulations for relatives, spouses and friends.”

The inquiry further called on the government and the Higher Education Board (YÖK) to end the arrangement and seek official procedures with regards to the claims.

Tanrıkulu also demanded a written response directly from Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.