Turkish prosecutor investigates exam 'irregularity'

ANKARA

Ankara prosecutor's office has launched a probe into alleged problems in a university student placement examination from 2014.

Ankara prosecutor Yucel Erkman ordered the probe Thursday over "strong suspicions of irregularity" in the Undergraduate Placement Exam (LYS), in which a relative of U.S. based-preacher Fetullah Gulen, also named Fethullah Gulen [with an additional 'h' in the name], came third in the exam's Turkish-Mathematic branch across Turkey, according to Turkey’s Student Selection and Placement Center (OSYM). 

The young student is described by the Turkish media as a grandson of Gulen's brother. 

In Turkey, high-school graduate students sit two exams to qualify for university; one is the Exam of Transition to Higher Education, better known as YGS, in March and the other is the LYS, held in June. 

In 2014, Fethullah Gulen was then a student at Izmir Yamanlar College, which the Turkish media associates with the Gulen movement. 

Erkman reviewed the student's exam result in a notice issued by an anonymous lawyer via a Twitter account. 

The same lawyer reportedly shared a list of dersanes [tutoring classes mostly run by the Gulen movement] which achieved exceptionally high scores in the LYS.

Gulen scored strongly in several subjects, with perfect scores in mathematics and geometry. His exam result paper was shared by the college on Twitter on June 28, 2014.  

Last week, police detained four people, including one woman working at the OSYM over allegedly "delivering questions of 2014 LYS to senior figures of the [Gulen] movement".

On June 28, 2014, the student Gulen said in comments reported by Anadolu Agency: "We studied, strove. God willing, we will do a good thing for promoting my name as its name of hodja," in reference to U.S.-based Gulen. 

In late March 2015, police detained scores of people as part of a probe into cheating in a 2010 civil service recruitment exam (KPSS).

Officers allegedly found involvement of ‘parallel state’ members, which the Turkish government accuses of penetrating key positions of responsibility across the country in order to undermine it.

In addition, the OSYM has also launched an investigation into the incident.