MESOP’S INSIDE REPORTS : GUELEN CONTRA ERDOGAN – THE FIGHT TO DEATH HAS STARTED
The AKP has largely kept quiet. However, the party’s Vice Chairman Salih Kapusuz, implicitly targeted the Gulen Movement on Wednesday when he said, “We haven’t subjugated to military custody, bureaucratic custody, external forces and gangs and we will not.”
Turkey: Corruption Crisis — Political Fight to the Death for Erdogan Government?
Political tensions have risen sharply in Turkey since Tuesday when police detained at least 52 people, including businessmen and sons of ministers, in a major investigation of corruption. Detainees included the mayor of the Fatih district of İstanbul; a Turkish construction mogul; the general manager of Halkbank; and officials in the Environment and Economy ministries. Accusations include the payment of bribes to enable transactions of money and gold between Turkey, Iran, and Russia.
Claims are circulating that Interior Minister Muammer Guler, Economy Minister Zafer Çaglayan, and Environment and Urban Planning Minister Erdogan Bayraktar have embezzled millions of dollars. Prosecutors have asked Parliament to lift the immunity of four ministers.
In response, Governors linked to Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan dismissed 29 police chiefs in Istanbul and Ankara on Wednesday.
Justice Minister Sadullah Ergin denied that he had held a meeting with the Supreme Board of Judges and Prosecutors to strip prosecutors off their rights.
The judiciary hit back with the appointment of two more prosecutors to the cases. The prosecutors said that they were conducting three separate investigations: one into the ministers and their sons, one of various businessmen, and one about local government officials.
The developments followed an escalation in the feud between Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party (AKP) and the Gulen Movement. An AKP MP, Hakan Sukur, resigned, saying Erdogan did not care enough to address the concerns of those advocating the existence of preparatory schools — concerns led by the Gulen Movement in its protest against shutdowns of the schools. On Wednesday, Erdogan and Deputy Prime Minister Bülent Arınç appeared to target the Gulen Movement, claiming a “gang within the state” is behind the “dirty operation” of the prosecutors’ investigations.
The Gulen Movement was founded about the same time as the AKP in the 1960s. Led by Fethullah Gulen, it has an extensive network of communities with schools in 140 countries, including the US, Europe, Central Asia, Africa, and parts of the Middle East. Mr Gulen, 75, has been living in a self-imposed exile in Pennsylvania since 1999. Though the network does not have formal membership, he is known to have one of the largest groups of active followers in the world. The network has roots in the US, Europe, Central Asia, Africa and some countries in the Middle East.
The two groups have had long-time tensions, culminating in the self-imposed exile of Fethullah Gulen to Pennsylvania in 1999. However, in 2010, it allied with the AKP in a marriage of convenience. There were signs of fracture in the alliance last month, with the AKP indicating it held documents that could damage its former rival. Leaders of the Gulen Movement told members to prepare for the revelations.
The Gulen Movement denies allegations that they are behind the corruption arrests; however, a columnist for the Zaman newspaper, a Gulen outlet, said recently that Sukur’s resignation was the “last warning” to the government.
The AKP has largely kept quiet. However, the party’s Vice Chairman Salih Kapusuz, implicitly targeted the Gulen Movement on Wednesday when he said, “We haven’t subjugated to military custody, bureaucratic custody, external forces and gangs and we will not.”
About the Author’s : Ali Kemal Yenidunya, Scott Lucas Scott Lucas is a professor of American Studies at the University of Birmingham and editor-in-chief of EA WorldView. He is a specialist in US and British foreign policy and international relations, especially the Middle East and Iran. Formerly he worked as a journalist in the US, writing for newspapers including the Guardian and The Independent and was an essayist for The New Statesman before he founded EA WorldView in 2009.
http://eaworldview.com/2013/12/turkey-corruption-crisis-political-fight-death-erdogan-government/