The north’s ‘parliament’ on Monday resolved to create a committee to examine a request filed by the north’s chief public prosecutor’s office to lift the immunity of ruling coalition party UBP ‘MP’ Emrah Yesilirmak over his alleged involvement in the “fake diploma scandal”.

The motion to create the committee was passed unanimously, with opposition party CTP ‘MP’ Sami Ozuslu informing the Cyprus Mail that the committee will consist of five members whose names will likely be decided and announced on Tuesday.

The committee will have 45 days to complete its work and will thus report back at the end of May on the chief public prosecutor’s office’s findings and its opinions on whether Yesilirmak’s immunity should be lifted.

Its recommendation will then be submitted to ‘parliament’ for a vote.

‘MPs’ in the north are granted immunity from criminal proceedings by article 84 of the ‘TRNC’s’ constitution, with limited exceptions.

Yesilirmak received a degree in business administration from Morphou’s now-infamous Cyprus Health and Social Sciences University (KSTU), with rumours surrounding the possibility it was forged having first surfaced in February last year.

He has insisted throughout the last 13 months that he is innocent, and that while the KSTU may have been involved in crime, he fulfilled his obligations to receive a degree.

“What I have said from the beginning is that this is not my responsibility. After all, I did not steal, take a bribe, commit corruption, or misuse public resources. I went and registered at a school and did what the school told me to do. I did not harm the public. I neither prepared a forged document nor submitted one,” he told newspaper Yeni Duzen last year.

He added, “if the school did not fulfil its obligations under the law, it is not my responsibility.

“I did not commit a crime. If a crime was committed, the school committed it. It has nothing to do with me.”

kstu e1653114742852
The Cyprus Health and Social Sciences University

The fake diploma scandal rocked the north’s education sector last year, with numerous high-profile figures having been arrested so far and cases now making their way through the courts.

KSTU secretary-general and 30-per-cent shareholder Serdal Gunduz will next appear in court on March 18, while former ‘education minister’ Kemal Durust, who served three separate stints in the role between 2009 and 2016, is also set to go on trial for his role in the scandal.

Elsewhere, his wife and high-level civil servant Meray Durust, former chairman of the north’s higher education accreditation authority (Yodak) Turgay Avci and board member Mehmet Hasguler, and Ersin Tatar’s bodyguard Serif Avcil have all also been arrested.

Late last year, Yodak’s application to continue its affiliate membership of the European Association for Quality Assurance in Higher Education (Enqa) was not accepted, with the north’s universities effectively set to lose their international recognition if this is not resolved.

Current Yodak chairman Aykut Hocanin said on November that the issue “must be resolved” before a scheduled Enqa members’ forum in Paphos in April, as if the decision is taken at that forum, “it is likely that such a decision will be negative there”.

“Enqa membership is important. In order to achieve accreditation in European standards, to follow quality processes, to be in a knowledge network with them, and for Yodak to be able to provide accreditation in European standards, it is necessary that we are a member of this organisation,” he said.