3 Turkish ministers resign as probe heats up
GAZIANTEP, Turkey — Three senior ministers in Turkey’s Cabinet resigned Wednesday as a secret 14month corruption investigation of bid rigging and bribery intensified, threatening to topple the country’s ruling party.
The graft probe presents the most serious challenge to the legitimacy of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s government since protests last summer.
The investigation has so far netted millions of dollars in cash stashed away in shoe boxes, exposed sanctionsbreaking deals with Iran and revealed bribes paid to allow construction in protected areas.
Outrage has morphed into protest, with thousands taking to the streets over the weekend after a series of dawn raids last week that targeted high-profile businessmen, the mayor of Istanbul’s Fatih district and bureaucrats.
Turkish Economy Minis- ter Zafer Caglayan, Interior Minister Muammer Guler and Erdogan Bayraktar, the minister for the environment and urban planning, resigned Wednesday.
Statements released from Caglayan and Guler — whom some call “chemical Guler” for his part in putting down anti-government protests with tear gas this year — reflected the rhetoric of Erdogan, who has framed the corruption probe as an international conspiracy led by a “dark alliance” of “traitors and spies.”
Bayraktar, however, shifted the focus to Erdogan.
“I believe that the prime minister should step down as well in order to relieve the Turkish public,” Bayraktar said, according to the newspaper Today’s Zaman.
In the last week, Erdogan has overseen the firing of hundreds of police officers investigating the corruption allegations.
It is believed the longrunning investigation was conducted without Erdogan’s knowledge.