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Foreign press: Ministers’ sons arrested in fraud investigation in Turkey

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BUSINESS FRAUD TURKEYSurprise raids on allies of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has sent shockwaves through government months before elections.

Turkish police have arrested the sons of three cabinet ministers and at least 34 others in orchestrated raids that appeared to represent the biggest assault on the authority of the prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, since mass protests against his rule last summer.

The detentions went to the heart of the Erdoğan administration and included leading businessmen known to be close to the government and officials said to be engaged in suspected corruption, bribery and tender-rigging.

While no official statements have yet been made, Turkish analysts saw the surprise wave of arrests as a strong sign of the worsening conflict between the Erdoğan government and his former allies, a movement of moderate Islamists lead by exiled cleric Fethullah Gülen.

According to Turkish media reports, the sons of the interior minister, the economics minister and the environment and city planning minister were among those detained. Other detainees included the head of the state-controlled Halkbank, the mayor of an Istanbul district considered to be a stronghold of the ruling AK party as well as the three construction sector tycoons, Ali Agaoglu, Osman Agca and Emrullah Turanli. Agaoglu has recently made headlines with controversial mega-projects and works for the notoriously opaque state housing agency (Toki).

The dawn raids were launched following a year-long investigation into allegations of rigging state tenders and bribery and were undertaken without Erdoğan’s knowledge, signalling a considerable blow to the authority of the increasingly authoritarian prime minister, the Turkish daily Hürriyet said.

Erdoğan declined to comment on the corruption arrests, citing the ongoing investigation. However speaking at an opening ceremony in the city of Konya, he blamed what he called “dark circles”. He said “They can use whatever ugly methods they like or turn to dirty alliances, but we will not bow to any threats. Neither the nation nor we will give permission to those who seek to settle their scores outside the ballot box. Turkey is not a banana republic.”

Many commentators speculated that the high-profile operation may have come on the back of an increasingly heated feud between the AKP government and the moderately Islamist Gülen movement named after its leader, Fethullah Gülen. Critics of the group allege that Gülenists wield considerable influence over Turkish state institutions, especially in the judiciary, the police, and the secret security sectors.

At the start of Erdoğan’s 11-year-long rule, the Gülen movement was an important ally in reining in the military and the dominant, military-backed secular elite, but the union between the two factions of Erdoğan’s conservative power base has since turned sour.

Tension increased last month when Erdoğan announced plans to close down or transform prep-schools owned by the Gülen movement, thus depriving them of millions in revenue and a powerful and influential recruitment network. Two AK MPs have since left the party over the row, one of whom was former footballer Hakan Sükür, who announced his resignation on Monday.

18.12.2013
MEDIA

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