Article Scan – Questions that will hound Erdoğan
Questions that will hound Erdoğan / Semih Idiz
Life has all of a sudden become difficult for Prime Minister Erdoğan at the very moment he considered his political future secure. The pro-government media is rallying now to discredit the corruption investigation which involves a large number of detentions, and which includes the sons of three government ministers, one mayor from Erdoğan’s Justice and Development Party (AKP), and prominent businessmen and bankers.
Everyone is wondering now what is behind this operation, and the first “suspect” to come to many minds is the Islamist Gülen movement. Tensions between this group and the AKP have been rising over the years, and boiled over recently due to the prep-school issue – a matter that has received wide media coverage.
The Gülen movement denies this but the vitriol flying between daily Zaman, which is close to Gülen, and Yeni Şafak, which is staunchly pro-AKP, is enough to give one a sense of the bitter struggle involved.
The former is emphasizing the rule of law now while the latter is talking about a conspiracy against Erdoğan, including the not surprising claim that Israel is somehow behind this investigation.
No doubt the coming days will rake up all sorts of claims, and the rumor that the investigation covers a government minister who allegedly took a 1.5 million dollar bribe shows how ugly some of these will be.
All of this is disastrous for Erdoğan who has tried to build his political reputation on combating corruption. All the lofty remarks he made on this score, especially against governments before the AKP, are now in the air.
