World leaders will be among thousands attending Friday’s procession and memorial service in Louisville, Kentucky, where boxing legend Muhammad Ali was born in 1942. Muhammad Ali, generally considered to be one of the greatest heavyweights in the history of boxing, died last Friday at the age of 74 in hospital in Phoenix, Arizona after a long battle with Parkinson’s disease.
Among those attending the funeral service will be the President of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and King Abdullah of Jordan. Both leaders were also scheduled to make a speech at the funeral, an idea that was not welcomed by many, at least the 1000 people who have already signed the petition asking the legendary boxer’s family to prevent the Turkish president from giving a speech at the funeral. “He [Mohammad Ali] is a great example of struggle for freedom, democracy, equality and justice. We are his brothers and sisters in that struggle, trying to achieve them in Turkey” says the text accompanying the petition set up by Turkish nationals.
“If Muhammad Ali were to just be Muhammad Ali in Erdogan’s regime, he would be beaten, jailed and maybe even killed. He is everything Muhammed Ali stood against and fought against all his life…. His only intention for making a speech at the funeral is to give his dictatorship legitimacy by using Muhammad Ali’s legacy.”
Yesterday, the Ali family spokesman Bob Gunnell said that both President Erdogan and King Abdullah are no longer expected to give a speech at the Friday funeral because two unnamed speakers have been added to the program, leaving no room for foreign dignitaries. The Telegraph reports Mr. Gunnell saying that both their offices were “gracious and understood”.
Another internet campaign hits the president of Turkey
As BBC Trending reports, recent days Turks have taken to Twitter under the hashtag #YaDiplomaYaİstifa – which means Either Your Diploma Or You Resign – accusing the president of lying. Tens of thousands of tweets have used the hashtag and call on the president to produce evidence of his higher education.
President Erdogan’s official biography states that he graduated from Maramara University’s Economic and Commercial Sciences Faculty in 1981.
Doubts about the authenticity of Erdogan’s degree were first made by an opposition MP before his election as President in 2014, with claims that the archives of Marmara University was closed during the Presidential election of 2014. And in the past few days the conversation has resurfaced as a result of the re-sharing of old reports saying that the Marmara University archives have since been reopened, and the President’s degree can not be found.
Discussion of the President’s eligibility has extended beyond social media. The former chairman of the Association of Judges and Prosecutors (YARSAV), Omer Faruk Eminagaoglu has appealed to the Supreme Election Board (YSK) of Turkey to annul Erdogan’s presidency. He submitted a 29 page document in support of his appeal, claiming that a necessary review of his eligibility was not carried out prior to his election as President. He also called for the Ankara’s Chief Public Prosecutor to begin an investigation into Erdogan’s alleged “use of forged official documents”.
President Erdogan has yet to respond to the allegations.
