A senior official in Turkey's top scientific body TÜBİTAK has confessed that his university diploma is a fake, in the latest scandal to shake the state-run agency allegedly plagued by infiltration of followers of the Gülen Movement.
Hasan Başaran was arrested last week after it emerged that he had sneaked out documents and data that employees are not allowed to remove from the headquarters of TÜBİTAK or Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey.
Sabah daily reported that not even the immediate family of Başaran was aware that his diploma from the country's prestigious Middle Eastern Technical University (ODTÜ) was fake.
Başaran was serving as head of the Public Certification Center of TÜBİTAK, which prepares and regulates e-signatures used in access to e-government applications, when he was arrested in possession of 295 CDs and a USB drive containing data and documents stolen from TÜBİTAK.
The report in the Sabah newspaper quoted Başaran telling police that he was appointed as head of the center by reference of Hasan Palaz, a senior TÜBİTAK official, who was suspended from duty last year after reports surfaced that he helped the infiltration of followers of the Gülen Movement into TÜBİTAK. He was also implicated in the wiretapping of the prime minister's office.
Hasan Başaran said in his testimony that he designed the fake diploma on Photoshop in 2005 and he even managed to cheat the Turkish Armed Forces with his diploma. Başaran, a high school graduate, completed his compulsory military service in six months, instead of 12 months as university graduates can serve a shorter military service.
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