Witness admits to giving completed thesis to close associate of north ‘PM’ in fake diploma case

A witness in the case against Turkish Cypriot ‘prime minister’ Unal Ustel’s close personal associate Fatma Unal on Monday told a court that he had handed her a completed thesis and submitted it on her behalf, as she faces accusations of having obtained her degree under false pretences.

Fahri Mert Dulger, who had been registered as a student at the now infamous Cyprus Health and Social Sciences University (KSTU) in Morphou, told a court there he had worked part-time as a driver at the university during his studies, and that university officials had given him instructions regarding what he needed to deliver and to whom.

Those university officials included Berke Ozbek, who worked as assistant to the university’s secretary-general Serdal Gunduz. Ozbek has already been sentenced to four years in prison for his role in the north’s “fake diploma scandal”, while Gunduz was in November handed a 15-year jail sentence.

Dulger said he had received a completed thesis from the Fistik Copy Centre printing shop in northern Nicosia’s Omorphita neighbourhood.

According to newspaper Yeniduzen, he was asked by prosecution lawyer Damla Guclu whether he submitted that thesis to the university on Unal’s behalf, and answered in the affirmative, before making a longer statement.

“In December 2023, Berke Ozbek sent me a message and told me to take the finished thesis belonging to Fatma Unal from the Fistik Copy Centre and deliver it to her,” he said, before clarifying that he had been asked to take it to Unal’s boutique near Kyrenia and give it to her sister.

The fact that this sequence of events happened in December 2023 is noteworthy, given that acting university director Mehmet Altuntas had said at the case’s most recent hearing that Unal’s date of graduation was listed on the university’s database as June 15, 2022, and that it was listed as such in September 2022.

He had told the court that in September 2022, Unal’s profile on the database was changed to show that she had taken and passed all the courses required and fulfilled all other requirements to graduate.

Unal faces a total of 12 charges and remains on bail. Her close personal relationship with Ustel saw her rise to the chairwomanship of the UBP Kyrenia district women’s branch, though she was removed from that post by the party last month.

The case’s next hearing has been scheduled for January 22.