Turkey Graft Probe Turns War of Attrition as Toll Mounts
By Benjamin Harvey, Selcan Hacaoglu and Onur Ant - Jan 8, 2014
Turkey’s ruling party ordered purges of police chiefs and moved to tighten control of the judiciary, as a top official said there’s no chance of a truce in the struggle with prosecutors leading a corruption probe.
The government will keep firing those leading the investigation and then seek to prosecute them for attempting a coup, Osman Can, a member of the central committee of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party, or Ak Party, said in a Jan. 6 interview in Istanbul.
“My opinion is that they are criminals -- the police and the judges and prosecutors,” Can said. “If you can destroy this organization, you can save democracy.”
The remarks suggest there’s little appetite in the ruling party for ending an internal war of attrition that has battered Turkish markets. Erdogan’s party accuses supporters of U.S.- based Islamic cleric Fethullah Gulen, who have positions of power in the judiciary and police, for pursuing the graft probes in an effort to turn public opinion before local elections in March. Gulen has denied involvement.
Gulen supporters dominate “all the control points” of Turkey’s judiciary, even though they account for about only 15 percent of its personnel, the Ak Party’s Can said. He said the government is “discussing every possible option” to remove that influence.
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http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-01-07/no-truce-for-turkey-as-erdogan-party-vows-revenge-after-probe.html
