Three Turkish ministers have resigned after their sons were arrested amid a corruption scandal that has hit the government of PM Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Announcing his decision, Environment Minister Erdogan Bayraktar said the prime minister should also step down. Two of the ministers’ sons are among 24 people charged, who include the head of the state-owned Halkbank. The prime minister has threatened to “break the hands” of rivals who used the inquiry to undermine his rule. He has referred to a “dark plot” by forces outside Turkey. In response to the police crackdown, dozens of senior police officials have been removed from their posts, including the head of police in Istanbul. All three ministers had appeared with Mr Erdogan in front of a crowd of supporters on Tuesday night on his return to Esenboga airport in Ankara from a trip to Pakistan. First to announce their resignations on Wednesday were Economy Minister Zafer Caglayan and Interior Minister Muammer Guler, whose sons have both been charged in connection with the inquiry. Kaan Caglayan and Baris Guler have both denied accusations of involvement in bribery relating to urban development projects and the allocation of construction permits. In a statement, Mr Caglayan condemned the inquiry as a set-up and said he was stepping down “so that all the light may be laid on this ignoble operation that targets our government”. A few hours later, the environment minister told Turkish TV he was leaving his post. “For the sake of the wellbeing of this nation and country, I believe the prime minister should resign,” he said. His son was arrested and questioned in connection with the corruption investigation but later released without any formal charge. Mr Bayraktar said he himself was not implicated in the scandal but it was the prime minister’s right to remove whoever he wished. “But I don’t accept any pressure to resign… because a big majority of construction plans laid down and approved in the investigation dossier were carried out with the approval of the prime minister”. Addressing supporters at the airport late on Tuesday, Mr Erdogan said the 17 December arrests had targeted “the national will, the people”, the Hurriyet newspaper reported. The opposition had demanded that the ministers step down and on Sunday anti-government protesters took to the streets of Istanbul
demonstrating against the scandal. The prime minister came to power in 2002 as head of the Islamist-rooted AK Party and commentators say the arrest of figures linked to the government and the subsequent police dismissals are part of an internal party feud. Islamic scholar Fethullah Gulen, in exile in the US, is seen as a rival to Mr Erdogan, and his Hizmet movement has supporters in the police and judiciary. ‘Shoe boxes’ Among those arrested by investigators was the chief executive of state-run Halkbank, Suleyman Aslan, and a mayor of a conservative area of Istanbul. Mr Aslan has been charged with receiving bribes. Turkish media report that $4.5m (£2.7m; 3.2m euros) in cash was found in shoe boxes at his home. His bank, one of Turkey’s biggest, has drawn criticism in the US for enabling the purchase of Iranian natural gas in return for Turkish gold. An Iranian-Azerbaijani businessman was one of those detained, on suspicion of involvement in irregular financial transactions. Halkbank has insisted the practice was lawful before it was stopped in June as a result of EU and US sanctions on Tehran. The Turkish government says the corruption scandal has wiped more than $1bn from the bank’s market value. – BBC News
