Resigning minister calls on Turkish PMto quit as well
Ankara – Three members of Turkey’s cabinet resigned today over a high-level corruption scandal, and one called on Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan to follow suit.
The unprecedented challenge raised the temperature in a weeklong crisis that has pitted a defiant Erdogan against the Turkish judiciary and reignited antigovernment sentiment that has simmered since the mass streetprotests of mid-2013.
The resigning interior, economy and environment ministers each had a son detained on December 17 as police went public with a long-running investigation into graft allegations involving staterun lender Halkbank. Two of the sons remain in custody along with 22 others, including the head of the bank.
The first two ministers echoed Erdogan in calling the probe a baseless plot against the govern- ment. But Environment Minister Erdogan Bayraktar turned against the Turkish leader.
‘‘For the sake of the wellbeing of this nation and country, I believe the prime minister should resign,’’ he told NTV news.
By breaking ranks, Bayraktar may have diluted any easing of the pressure on Erdogan afforded by the resignations of Interior Minister Muammer Guler and Economy Minister Zafer Caglayan – though some analysts said the pair had moved too late anyway.
The cabinet shake-up’s Christmas Day timing cushioned the blow to Turkey on dormant international markets.
Erdogan did not immediately respond to Bayraktar’s remarks. But in his first public appearance after the resignations, the pugnacious prime minister – who during three terms in office has transformed Turkey by tackling its oncedominant secular military and orchestrating an economic boom – appeared unfazed.
Erdogan told provincial leaders of his Islamist-rooted AK party that he would not tolerate corrup- tion. But, having answered the December 17 graft arrests by purging the police officers involved, he argued that their work had been deeply tainted.
‘‘If a verdict is made by the opposition party on the second day of the investigation, what’s the point of having judges? If a decision is made by the media, what’s the point of having these long legal procedures?’’ Erdogan said.
Alluding to TV news reports which have riveted Turks with images of cash-filled shoeboxes allegedly seized at suspects’ homes, he asked: ‘‘How do you know what that money is for?‘‘
The 14-month investigation was conducted largely in secret.
At the weekend, the Erdogan government changed the regulations for the police, requiring officers to report evidence, investigations, arrests and complaints to commanding officers and prosecutors. Crime reporters have been banned from police stations.
The Hurriyet newspaper said that as many as 550 police officers, including senior commanders, had been dismissed nationwide by Guler during the past week.
Erdogan’s critics see an authoritarian streak in his rule, and the European Union, to which Turkey has long sought accession, yesterday urged Ankara to safeguard the country’s separation of powers.
The latest scandal has laid bare the rivalry between Erdogan and Fethullah Gulen, a United Statesbased Turkish Muslim cleric whose Hizmet (‘‘Service‘‘) movement claims at least a million followers, including senior police and judges, and runs schools and charities across Turkey and abroad.
While denying any role in the affair, Gulen described Erdogan as suffering ‘‘decayed thinking’’ after the prime minister portrayed himself as fending off a shadowy international plot.
In an apparent reference to Gulen, Erdogan said today: ‘‘We would not let certain organisations acting under the guise of religion being used as the tools of certain countries to carry out an operation on our country.’’