ISTANBUL: A war of words escalated between Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan and a cleric with powerful influence in the police and judiciary, worsening political turmoil unleashed by a corruption scandal. Turkey has been increasingly polarised since the arrest on graft charges last week of the head of state-run lender Halkbank and the sons of two government ministers.
Erdogan answered the arrests by sacking or reassigning the Istanbul police chief and some 70 other police officers.
The scandal and the government’s response have added to a febrile political atmosphere in the country, which saw unprecedented mass protests against Erdogan’s rule earlier this year.
The lira currency hovered near a record low yesterday, hammered by the domestic political tension as well as the US Federal Reserve’s decision to cut back monetary stimulus.
In the latest rift, the government attracted unprecedented, open condemnation from Fethullah Gulen, whose Hizmet movement claims at least a million followers, including senior police and judges, and runs schools and charities across Turkey and abroad.
Gulen lashed out against the government by praying that “God bring fire to their houses”. Erdogan shot back with remarks that, while not naming Gulen directly, accused unnamed outsiders of “setting wicked and dark traps in our country, using their local pawns to disrupt Turkey’s unity and integrity.”
“We will go into (their) lairs and ... expose those organisations within the state,” Erdogan said.
Yesterday Gulen made clear he saw the prime minister’s remarks as an attack on his movement.
“Those who call Muslims ‘gangs’, ‘bandits’, ‘network’ and see them as gorillas, monkeys that have taken shelter in lairs — these are nothing but a reflection of decayed thinking and no wrong can be made right with them,” Gulen said in an audio recording posted on the Internet. “God sees who is in a lair.” Reuters
