Denied in Turkey

Breaking News --- another report by a major newspaper

Asahi Shimbun, one of the largest newspapers in Japan, published an article entitled "Todai Assistant Professor Claiming an Astronaut Candidate: Reasoning Denied by Turkish Government" on the web and in the November 14th printed issue.

This time, the article explicitly mentions the name "Serkan ANILIR". According to the article, Dr. Anilir had submitted a document issued by Turkish Ministry of Transportation to the University of Tokyo, as an evidence of his claim that he is an astronaut candidate.  (It is not clear from the article when the document was submitted by Dr. Anilir. Maybe during the recent investigation.) However, on November 13th, Asahi Shimbun obtained a written comment from Turkish government that "the document is not issued by Turkish MInistry of Transportation, and the content does not represent the fact".

The article also reports that Dr. Anilir also submitted similar letters which are supposed to be issued by NASA and a Professor in the US who invited him to NASA projects. However, they also denied the authenticity of the letters.

Asahi Shimbun interviewed Dr. Anilir in late October about the suspicion surrounding his astronaut candidate claim. He told the newspaper that he took an astronaut training course, based on an agreement between Turkish Air Force and NASA. He could not speak more details because it is a military matter.

The article also reports the problems with his publication list, which was already published by Nikkei.

Well, misrepresenting career in Japan is one thing (which would be certainly very bad), but fabricating an official document from Turkish government is quite another. Wouldn't it be a criminal offense in Turkey? Maybe Dr. Anilir is feeling so sorry about the problem, that he is cornering himself? An interesting observation is that, apparently he did not submit an "official document" from Turkish Air Force which played part according to his story. (see also this entry.)