Before delving into the details, let me clarify my personal stance… Cheating on exams is a despicable crime. Whoever has committed it deserves condemnation. Even the 6% approval/confirmation rate you’ll see in the court decisions detailed below is too high.
Even 1% is unacceptable. Especially for a movement like the Gülen Community, which prioritizes education and draws upon religious and universal values, the possibility of anyone within committing such a crime is unthinkable. Any form of justification or rationalization should be outright rejected.
But this is where we need to take a deep breath and say, “But…”
Because in cases like exam cheating, attempted coups, and fabricated evidence—key allegations of Erdoğan’s regime—the goal is not to find crimes or criminals. If that were the case, over 750,000 people wouldn’t have been subjected to terrorism investigations, more than 300,000 wouldn’t have faced administrative inquiries, and mass arrests wouldn’t have targeted everyone from infants to elderly people in wheelchairs. There wouldn’t have been torture during custody or suspicious deaths in prisons. If there were truly a fair approach, prosecutions—15 July included—would have been limited to just a few thousand people.
More importantly, this approach isn’t only about morality; it’s what the law demands.
But the opposite happened. Over a million people faced terrorism investigations. They were stripped of all their rights. They weren’t even allowed to defend themselves. They were condemned to poverty and destitution. Dozens of people dismissed under emergency decrees committed suicide, unable to bear the “demonization” they faced. Lives were destroyed, families torn apart.
However, criminal trials rely on evidence. If there’s evidence, there’s a crime; if not, there’s no crime!
ERDOĞAN REGIME’S GREAT “SUCCESS”
Let’s move on to the core issue.
Namely, the details behind Erdoğan’s regime’s claim that the Gülen Community “stole exam questions.” According to the judiciary and media aligned with Erdoğan’s regime, members of the Gülen Community stole questions from 12 different exams in 8 categories over a span of 9 years, from 2005 to 2013.
This is a massive and fundamental accusation, isn’t it? Through political power and propaganda machinery, Erdoğan’s regime managed to make this narrative widely accepted. In this sense, the exam cheating narrative could be considered a success story for the regime!
If you look at the report prepared by the Anti-Smuggling and Organized Crime Department (KOM) at the request of the Ankara Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office, it would seem as though security forces scrutinized every detail, substantiated all the allegations with evidence, and referred them to the judiciary.
According to this report—which Erdoğan’s media and even so-called independent or opposition media prominently featured without question—17,894 individuals were accused of cheating on exams. The distribution of these individuals by exam is as follows:
- 13,421 people accused in the 2010 KPSS exam
- 3,205 people in the 2009-2011 Police Officer to Commissioner promotion exams
- 269 people in the 2012 Police Academy Exam
- 310 people in the 2009 Police College Entrance Exam
- 212 people in the 2012 District Governor Candidacy Entrance Exam
- 86 people in the 2012 Judicial Judge and Prosecutor Candidacy Exam for Lawyers
- 371 people in the 2010-2013 Ministry of Foreign Affairs Professional Officer and Consulate Officer Exams
Looking at these numbers, you might think an incredibly thorough investigation was conducted, resulting in concrete evidence. But during the trials, it became clear that this was not the case.
By the way, the alleged numbers of exam cheating cases represent only 2.5% of the total cases against the Community.
In other words, even if we were to accept the regime’s narrative, exam cheating constitutes only a very small portion of all the cases against the Community. Yet, if you listen to the language of the government, its media, and even so-called opposition leaders like Özgür Özel, you’d think the entire Community was involved in cheating!
THE TRIALS EXPOSE THE TRUTH
Let’s continue with the records.
When we examine the status of the 17,894 individuals accused of cheating in heavy penal courts and the Court of Cassation, an entirely different picture emerges.
For those wondering how one could analyze thousands of rulings, don’t worry. Lawyer Murat Akkoç and a group of lawyers dismissed under emergency decrees (KHK) meticulously reviewed thousands of rulings one by one. This study, covering the years 2021 to 2024, revealed some striking results.
Akkoç and his team examined 12,392 rulings between October 1, 2023, and October 25, 2024. Let’s remember: The cheating allegations are legally categorized under the charges of “forgery of official documents” and “fraud against public institutions and organizations.”
In the past year, 366 “exam cheating” cases were finalized in the Court of Cassation. Among these:
- 334 cases resulted in acquittal at local courts.
- In 32 cases, convictions issued by heavy penal courts were overturned by the Court of Cassation, stating, “These individuals should have been acquitted.”
- Only 3 cases were overturned against the defendants.
To make the numbers clearer: Out of 366 rulings, 343 cases resulted in acquittal—which translates to 93.7%. In other words, approximately 94 out of every 100 accused individuals were acquitted.
The number of people convicted by the Court of Cassation for cheating was 23, which corresponds to 6.3%.
Even within Erdoğan’s regime—where judicial processes have reached their lowest point and courts have turned into theaters—94% of those accused of cheating were acquitted. These findings mark the collapse of the operation designed to demonize the Community.
THE CONTRADICTIONS IN THE CHEATING NARRATIVE
There have been significant contradictions and inconsistencies within the exam cheating accusations themselves. To begin with, Erdoğan and his propaganda machinery have repeatedly emphasized how intelligent and well-educated these individuals are.
Many of those dismissed under emergency decrees later ranked highly in university exams, despite all the hardships they faced in prisons like Silivri or Sincan.
There are countless examples of this. A simple Google search confirms this reality. Moreover, the careers of the dismissed individuals speak for themselves.
If you say, “But there are confessions from those who admitted to receiving the questions!” I would remind you of the issue of evidence. First, you need to address under what conditions these statements were obtained. Was there torture or mistreatment?
Having worked extensively on the 15 July files, I can confidently say that many of the statements in these trials were obtained through torture. If there is no supporting evidence to back up the claims, these statements must be approached with skepticism.
Finally, even for the 6.3% of rulings upheld by the courts, it’s crucial to follow the processes in the Constitutional Court and the European Court of Human Rights carefully.
If someone voluntarily and with evidence confesses to receiving or distributing questions without experiencing torture, then the law will take its course.
