ANKARA: Five Turkish police chiefs have been dismissed after dozens of people including sons of cabinet ministers were detained in a high-profile probe into bribery and fraud, media reports said yesterday.
The police raids on Tuesday and the subsequent sackings have highlighted deep rifts in Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s support base ahead of key elections in Turkey next year.
The operation sent shockwaves across the country and prompted calls from opposition parties for the resignation of the entire government. “This is the biggest scandal in the history of the republic,” said Engin Altay of the opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP). “The prime minister must resign.”
In a statement a day after the wave of arrests, the police department only said that some personnel had been appointed to other posts because “they abused their powers”. At least 50 people were detained in Tuesday’s dawn raids suspected of numerous offences including accepting and facilitating bribes for development projects and securing construction permits for protected areas in exchange for money, as well as gold smuggling and money laundering, according to press reports.
The sons of Interior Minister Muammer Guler, Economy Minister Zafer Caglayan and Environment Minister Erdogan Bayraktar were detained along with well-known businessmen, the mayor of Istanbul’s conservative Fatih district, and bureaucrats including the chief executive of Turkish state bank Halkbank, Suleyman Aslan, and construction tycoon Ali Agaoglu.
Police also seized $4.5m in cash hidden in shoe boxes in Aslan’s home, the private Dogan News Agency reported, citing judicial sources. Police have declined to comment on the raids.
An Istanbul prosecutor’s office said that three separate investigations into alleged bribery were launched in September 2012 and February 2013. According to press reports, one of those probes centres around Azerbaijani businessman Reza Zarrab, suspected of bribery to disguise illegal gold sales to Iran via Halkbank. There is speculation the anti-corruption operation may be linked to a very public dispute between Erdogan’s government and a former ally, the influential Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen.
Gulen lives in exile in the United States, but wields considerable influence in several arms of Turkey’s state apparatus including the police, secret services and the judiciary and also runs a network of private schools.
The Gulen movement was a key supporter of Erdogan’s Islamic-rooted Justice and Development Party (AKP), helping it to win three elections in a row since 2002. AFP
