The FINANCIAL — Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has acknowledged that Ali Demir, the head of the country's test organizing body, failed to manage a recent crisis triggered by allegations of a cheating code used in the exam booklet for the Transition to Higher Education Examination (YGS). Speaking during a television program titled "Siyaset Meydanı" (The Political Arena) late on Sunday, Erdoğan said he does not believe there was cheating on the exam; nevertheless, he was critical of [Student Selection and Placement Center (ÖSYM) head] Demir.
“Was there cheating or not? That is the point. If there was cheating, that is dangerous. Otherwise, the issues concerning codes are details and technical. They do not influence the results. I asked Demir whether there was cheating on the YGS. He said certainly not. He showed us statistics and we saw that this year's success rate was lower. The [ÖSYM] president did not manage the situation well. However, this does not mean there was cheating on the exam and that the students are being victimized,” Erdoğan said.
The ÖSYM, the organizer of the YGS, has been under fire since March 27, when the test was administered. Allegations of cheating surfaced shortly thereafter; the ÖSYM was accused of inserting a code into the exam's multiple-choice answers. This indeed appeared to be the case in the question booklet distributed to the press after the exam. By rearranging the order of the numbers for questions with numeric answer choices in ascending order, a test-taker who knew the alleged code would be able to get the correct answer without having to read the question.
An investigation was immediately opened into the claims. Upon its conclusion last week, the results of the exam were announced on Thursday.
‘Election threshold needed for stability'
The prime minister was also asked about various issues concerning domestic politics. One question asked of Erdoğan was on the 10 percent election threshold currently in place in Turkey. “We need this threshold for political stability,” Erdoğan said in response to criticisms that imposing such a threshold serves as an obstacle to fair representation in Parliament.
“This issue is important because it is being abused [by some political parties]. This threshold was not introduced by the [Justice and Development Party] AK Party. The AK Party came to power in spite of the 10 percent election threshold. This threshold was also in place when we ran in the [2002] election and received 34 percent of the votes. … You will see in Turkey's past that single-party governments have always been successful and that coalition governments have always taken Turkey backwards. We need this threshold for stability,” he noted.
Erdoğan also criticized the pro-Kurdish Peace and Democracy Party (BDP), the party complaining about the threshold the most. The BDP will run in the upcoming June 12 general elections with independent deputies, fearing it would fail to make it over the 10 percent limit.
“It should embrace the whole nation. Why are they [party members] saying the BDP is the party of the Kurds? Why are they unable to say the BDP is the party of Turkey? I receive more votes from my Kurdish brothers than the BDP,” Erdoğan said.
The prime minister once again reiterated his willingness to adopt a presidential system in Turkey, as opposed to the parliamentary system Turkey currently has. He earlier announced that he is contemplating discussing whether Turkey should adopt the presidential system in a referendum following the June 12 general elections.
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