The man that we will call O. here is considered a mediator between Germany and Turkey. He is a teacher and political scientist at the University of Duisburg-Essen. He speaks about Turkey’s EU accession negotiations in broadcasts on WDR, gives lectures at the Turkish Consulate General, for example about the founder of the state Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, and lectures at the State Office for Political Education about his hobbyhorse: Islamic religious education.
This is also the subject area in which O. advises the Ministry of Education of North Rhine-Westphalia, for which he has been working for years. According to the ministry, he was also involved in the controversial decision to involve the Turkish Islamic association Ditib again in the organisation of Islamic education. Colleagues describe the man as “charismatic” and “charming”. There are photos showing him with former Federal Presidents Horst Köhler and Christian Wulff. And he often speaks with representatives of Turkish consulates and associations, including the mosque association Ditib. In various media reports up to 2007, O. himself appeared as a Ditib official. Today he denies this activity.
Research by the newspaper WELT AM SONNTAG now shows that there are considerable doubts about the academic and professional background of the influential scientist. It concerns an apparently fictitious job with the Federal President, a questionable professorial title – and a dissertation that cannot be found.
In his curriculum vitae on the website of the University of Duisburg-Essen, O. states that he worked as an advisor to the Office of the Federal President between 2006 and 2008. Upon request, however, a spokesperson for the Office of the Federal President states that O. is not known there. Horst Köhler’s office also states that O. never worked for the then Federal President.
It is only one of many inconsistencies in O.’s career. There is his alleged professorial title, which he uses in television appearances and events. However, O. does not hold a professorship at the University of Duisburg-Essen. A spokesperson for the university is ignorant and refers the matter to O. himself. He states that he is a professor “at another university”. Which one? He leaves that open even when asked. According to information from this newspaper, O. claimed internally at the university to have taken over a professorship at the ” University for Administration” as of 2019.
This could refer to the University of Police and Public Administration of North Rhine-Westphalia. However, a spokeswoman of this university states that O. is only active here “to a small extent as a lecturer”. Also curious: In May 2019, O. introduced himself at an event in Gelsenkirchen at the invitation of the Turkish education attaché as “Ass. Prof”, i.e. “assistant professor”. This is a title that does not exist in Germany, but does in Austria.
When asked about the inconsistencies, a spokesperson for the University of Duisburg-Essen referred to the Ministry of Education as O.’s employer. In fact, O. had taken over his position at the university in 2017 on secondment from the ministry. Teachers with an academic interest can be transferred to universities via such a secondment in order to gain additional qualifications.
But even the university could have noticed long ago that something was wrong with the information provided by the busy Islam expert. For example, a look at O.’s sparse publications, which are listed on the university’s website. Among them is an essay on the Kemalist reforms in Turkey. The author of the text was not O., but a theologian from Osnabrück.
O. also stated to the University of Duisburg-Essen that he had obtained his doctorate in Frankfurt. He also submitted a copy of a doctoral certificate. The original had only been submitted to the ministry, according to the university. The alleged subject of his dissertation was “Turkish foreign and European policy between the EU summits in Helsinki and Copenhagen (1999-2005)”. In a curriculum vitae, which was briefly available on the university’s website, it was also noted that the dissertation had been published in 2008 in a series of publications of the Konrad Adenauer Foundation.
These statements also raise questions. Upon request, the Konrad Adenauer Foundation states that it has never published any of the researcher’s work in a series of publications. O. was also not – as he repeatedly claimed – a doctoral scholarship holder of the foundation, but only received a study grant. The Goethe University in Frankfurt states that no documents are available on O.’s alleged doctorate. There is also no information about an alleged earlier teaching position in Frankfurt, which O. lists in his curriculum vitae. And even in the title of the alleged dissertation an error seems to have crept in: The EU summit in Copenhagen mentioned there did not take place in 2005, but already in 2002.
Did O. use titles for years that he is not allowed to use? That would be a criminal offence. The scientist leaves all questions about this unanswered. The University of Duisburg-Essen announced that it would look into the case. The department of the Minister of Education of North Rhine-Westphalia, Yvonne Gebauer (FDP), asserts that O. had presented all the certificates and academic credentials customary for applications, and further refers to data protection.
For the university and the state, all the open questions are sensitive. Universities are places where employees have access to sensitive information and research results. Upon request, the Office for the Protection of the Constitution of North Rhine-Westphalia states that it has knowledge that various states, including Russia, China and Turkey, are trying to “gather intelligence information and exert influence on their respective diasporas or the political and social spheres”. State or state-related organisations and individuals would also be used for this purpose.
O. is now under pressure to justify himself at his university. And the government of State Premier Armin Laschet must ask itself: Who is the man from whom it took advice?