Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Turkish university annuls Erdogan rival's degree, preventing run for president

reuters.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

131–140 of 466 posts

Re: Turkish university annuls Erdogan rival's degree, preventing run for president

#131

Post by Apofis »

cjbgkagh wrote: post #87
bawolff wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From the article it sounds like they were revoked due to causing property damage to the university. Even if you disagree with that move, it seems like a rather different situation.

I think in such situations it can be withheld but not withdrawn, it's pretty common for universities to hold back credentials until debts are paid. But once it's been given I think the only scenario which it can be withdrawn is if it was given under fraudulent circumstances. Like a newspaper retraction, it can only be retracted if the original statement was found to be false. The perpetrator should be sued for damage…

Well they can't force you to regurgitate the knowledge you got there or remove it from your resume, so big deal.

Re: Turkish university annuls Erdogan rival's degree, preventing run for president

#132

Post by JumpCrisscross »

7e wrote: post #52
overfeed wrote: post #31

In other, recent, non-related news, Columbia University revoked the diplomas of some pro-Palestine protestors[1]. The CBS headline buries the lede, but revoking diplomas is not too low for American universities. 1. https://www.cbsnews.com/newyork/news/columbia-university-pro...

Their diplomas were not revoked for being pro-Palestine, they were revoked for seizing a building, trespassing and vandalism. That's a false equivalence to what is happening in Turkey.

> they were revoked for seizing a building, trespassing and vandalism

To be precise, it sounds like they’ve been revoked until damages are paid back. This is no different from a diploma being revoked because your last tuition cheque bounced.

Re: Turkish university annuls Erdogan rival's degree, preventing run for president

#133

Post by manishsharan »

harshreality wrote: post #46
hagbard_c wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

India is quite big. Any Indians around here want to comment on whether these shenanigans are common there? I have the impression they're not but maybe I'm wrong. Talking about India, Lex Fridman interviewed Modi [1] recently, worth a listen or read. [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43405546

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hardeep_Singh_Nijjar

Not sure what your point is. Nijjar was a terrorist linked to assassinations in Punjab and committed to destruction of India. A nation , democracy included, has a right to protect itself.

Re: Turkish university annuls Erdogan rival's degree, preventing run for president

#134

Post by [deleted] »

echoangle wrote: post #57
darkhorn wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why it is a wow?

Well at least in my opinion, it seems extremely undemocratic. University education is a privilege that some people won’t be able to experience (financial constraints, having to care for relatives, …), and I don’t think it’s a unique qualifier for being a good president. I think if people want to elect someone who didn’t go to university, they should be able to.

[deleted]

Re: Turkish university annuls Erdogan rival's degree, preventing run for president

#135

Post by JumpCrisscross »

jayknight wrote: post #92
wnevets wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm sure it sounded like a good idea at the time but this proves once again these kind of limitations placed on leadership positions can and will be exploited.

In 2028, The State of Indiana is going to issue a corrected birth certificate for Pete Buttigieg showing him to be 32 years and therefore not eligible to be president.

The Constitution requires Presidents “have attained to the Age of thirty five Years” [1]. It cites the fact, not the certificate.

The Turkish law doesn’t seem to require an education, it requires a degree. Minor difference. (And the text of the law wouldn’t matter in the end.) But an interesting difference nevertheless.

[1] https://constitution.congress.gov/constitution/article-2/

Re: Turkish university annuls Erdogan rival's degree, preventing run for president

#136

Post by Teever »

hackyhacky wrote: post #100
alephnerd wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a disrepectful comparison for Turkish nationals working hard to build democratic institutions. The US hasn't had the same history of coups, insurgencies, pogroms, massacres, censorship, corruption, etc. Making everything about the US is just rude.

Why is it rude? Do you think Americans haven't worked hard to build democratic institutions?

It's not that it's rude per se, it's that users of this site who aren't from the US find it irksome when a subject that isn't the US comes up and someone invariably pivots it to talk about the US and current events.

It's okay to talk about stuff that isn't contemporary American politics or even sit the conversation out and observe others talking about non American subjects.

Not everything has to be about America.

Re: Turkish university annuls Erdogan rival's degree, preventing run for president

#137

Post by thrownawayhgf9 »

7e wrote: post #52
overfeed wrote: post #31

In other, recent, non-related news, Columbia University revoked the diplomas of some pro-Palestine protestors[1]. The CBS headline buries the lede, but revoking diplomas is not too low for American universities. 1. https://www.cbsnews.com/newyork/news/columbia-university-pro...

Their diplomas were not revoked for being pro-Palestine, they were revoked for seizing a building, trespassing and vandalism. That's a false equivalence to what is happening in Turkey.

[dead]

Re: Turkish university annuls Erdogan rival's degree, preventing run for president

#138

Post by chrisco255 »

darkhorn wrote: post #65
echoangle wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well at least in my opinion, it seems extremely undemocratic. University education is a privilege that some people won’t be able to experience (financial constraints, having to care for relatives, …), and I don’t think it’s a unique qualifier for being a good president. I think if people want to elect someone who didn’t go to university, they should be able to.

Democracy doesn't work when ordinary people are not educated. Education in Turkey has been very poor. Many people have finished only 5th or 8th grades. Many didn't go to a high school. Thus people are not critical thinkers. They are voting as if they are supporting a football team. Someone popular with a low education can fool people, just like in Turkey or Venezuella. And now here we see the result. Erdoğan has no d…

> Democracy doesn't work when ordinary people are not educated

When USA was formed and for the first couple hundred years of its existence, most people in it didn't have a high school or college degree. In fact many of the founders of the United States had no degree, including Benjamin Franklin, who was a newspaper editor, scientist, statesman and inventor.

Literacy can be learned by the 5th grade by most people. It can continue to be improved by self-study. Other skills can be learned by life experience.

Modern schooling can mostly be faked. It's pretty easy to breeze your way through a four year degree these days. Professors are even incentivized to make the courses easy. Hell, you can even have LLMs do your homework for you these days.

Re: Turkish university annuls Erdogan rival's degree, preventing run for president

#139

Post by klipt »

nothercastle wrote: post #126
spwa4 wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The value of a degree is in that the institution confirms, at any request, that said person has that degree. It's not the paper.

Definitely not the education that occurred there it seems

You can get education for free on Kahn Academy ... but not the networking or confirmation of credentials.

Re: Turkish university annuls Erdogan rival's degree, preventing run for president

#140

Post by atkailash »

Apofis wrote: post #131
cjbgkagh wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think in such situations it can be withheld but not withdrawn, it's pretty common for universities to hold back credentials until debts are paid. But once it's been given I think the only scenario which it can be withdrawn is if it was given under fraudulent circumstances. Like a newspaper retraction, it can only be retracted if the original statement was found to be false. The perpetrator should be sued for damage…

Well they can't force you to regurgitate the knowledge you got there or remove it from your resume, so big deal.

[dead]
Post reply on HN