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| ISTANBUL — Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey said in comments reported Thursday that he believes he is the ultimate target of a bribery and corruption investigation that has plunged his government into one of its worst crises since he came to power a decade ago. | ISTANBUL — Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey said in comments reported Thursday that he believes he is the ultimate target of a bribery and corruption investigation that has plunged his government into one of its worst crises since he came to power a decade ago. |
| In remarks published in Hurriyet, a Turkish daily newspaper, Mr. Erdogan said that those who tried to embroil him in the investigation would be “left empty-handed.” He made the comments to reporters on a plane as he returned from a visit to Pakistan on Tuesday. | |
| Mr. Erdogan reshuffled his cabinet late Wednesday, replacing 10 ministers, after three top ministers whose sons had been detained as part of the investigation abruptly resigned. One of the departing ministers shook the Turkish political establishment by calling for Mr. Erdogan to step down, a defiant move that underlined the growing fissures in Mr. Erdogan’s governing Justice and Development Party. | Mr. Erdogan reshuffled his cabinet late Wednesday, replacing 10 ministers, after three top ministers whose sons had been detained as part of the investigation abruptly resigned. One of the departing ministers shook the Turkish political establishment by calling for Mr. Erdogan to step down, a defiant move that underlined the growing fissures in Mr. Erdogan’s governing Justice and Development Party. |
| Turkey’s opposition on Thursday accused Mr. Erdogan of trying to rule via a secretive “deep state,” following the cabinet reshuffle in which he moved to cement his control over the police by installing a key ally at the powerful Interior Ministry. The term “deep state” has a sinister connotation in Turkey, and alludes to a murky group of operatives linked to the military who operate outside democratic structures. | |
| The government has dismissed more than a dozen high-ranking police officials as part of a purge of those it believes are driving the investigation, prompting criticism of Mr. Erdogan from people both within and outside his party who accuse him of interfering in judicial affairs. | |
| Mr. Erdogan “is trying to put together a cabinet that will not show any opposition to him,” Kemal Kilicdaroglu, the head of the biggest opposition party, the Republican People’s Party, or C.H.P., said in remarks reported by Turkish media. “Erdogan has a deep state.” | Mr. Erdogan “is trying to put together a cabinet that will not show any opposition to him,” Kemal Kilicdaroglu, the head of the biggest opposition party, the Republican People’s Party, or C.H.P., said in remarks reported by Turkish media. “Erdogan has a deep state.” |
| The resignations on Wednesday, coming only hours after the ministers welcomed Mr. Erdogan at the Ankara airport as he returned from Pakistan, were enough to inspire new talk of a deepening crisis, which Mr. Erdogan has repeatedly denounced as a foreign plot. | |
| But the call for Mr. Erdogan’s resignation by one of the departing ministers was considered stunning, coming from within a political party known for silencing dissent. That instantly raised the significance of the entire inquiry and left members of the Turkish public wondering if they were witnessing the collapse of their Islamist-rooted government of the last decade. | But the call for Mr. Erdogan’s resignation by one of the departing ministers was considered stunning, coming from within a political party known for silencing dissent. That instantly raised the significance of the entire inquiry and left members of the Turkish public wondering if they were witnessing the collapse of their Islamist-rooted government of the last decade. |
| “Now it seems the situation has changed completely,” said Kerem Oktem, a Turkey expert and research fellow at the University of Oxford. “It seems the ring around Erdogan has gotten tighter.” | |
| As a dramatic day came to a close on Wednesday, Mr. Erdogan emerged from a meeting with President Abdullah Gul in Ankara, the Turkish capital, and announced that seven other ministers would leave his cabinet, some of whom are departing as part of a long-planned reshuffle so that they can run in mayoral elections. One of the late-night departures included the European Union minister, who has been implicated in the corruption investigation. | |
| The investigation became public a week ago with dawn police raids on the offices of businessmen and others close to the prime minister. But Wednesday was the first time that someone who had been in Mr. Erdogan’s cabinet left the strong implication that the prime minister himself might be involved. | |
| The crisis is in sharp contrast to the image that Turkey has projected as an exemplar of a prosperous, Muslim-majority country based on democratic principles. A NATO member, Turkey has been embraced by the United States and Europe as a force for stability in the tumultuous Middle East, and the country has sought to play an important role in shaping the outcome of crises in Syria, Egypt and over Iran’s nuclear program. With Mr. Erdogan now preoccupied with political survival, Turkey’s role in the region and its relationship with the West are in question. | |
| The turmoil has taken a toll on the Turkish currency, the lira, which fell to a new low against the dollar on Thursday. Turkish stocks and bonds also fell, a further reflection of nervousness among investors about the political upheaval and its potential effect on the economy. | |
| The corruption inquiry has targeted the ministers’ sons, a construction tycoon with links to Mr. Erdogan and municipal workers, and it centers in part on allegations that officials received bribes in exchange for ignoring zoning rules and approving contentious development projects. No one has been convicted, but the issue has struck a nerve among the Turkish public, especially Istanbul residents. They have become increasingly resentful over the dizzying pace of development and riches amassed by a new, pious economic elite, with a strong hand in the construction industry, which rose to power alongside Mr. Erdogan and his associates. | |
| Mr. Erdogan has responded to the crisis by blaming foreign powers, appealing to the religious sentiments of supporters, and evoking the ghosts of Turkey’s past by likening it to the war for independence it fought after the breakup of the Ottoman Empire. Analysts have questioned whether such an approach will suffice to weather the storm. | |
| “We can see the prime minister is trying to take precautions against something that could be bigger,” said Ozgur Unluhisarcikli, the head of the Ankara office of the German Marshall Fund of the United States, a research organization. Mr. Unluhisarcikli said that as the investigation inched closer to Mr. Erdogan personally, he would “have more difficulty containing the damage.” | “We can see the prime minister is trying to take precautions against something that could be bigger,” said Ozgur Unluhisarcikli, the head of the Ankara office of the German Marshall Fund of the United States, a research organization. Mr. Unluhisarcikli said that as the investigation inched closer to Mr. Erdogan personally, he would “have more difficulty containing the damage.” |
| The public has been riveted by a flow of sordid details of the investigations leaked to the news media — with photographs of piles of cash in the bedroom of a minister’s son and reports that the chief executive of a state-owned bank had $4.5 million in cash packed in shoe boxes. | |
| Another major worry for Mr. Erdogan now is that anger with his administration will spread to the streets, as it did in the summer with the violent suppression of demonstrators trying to protect an Istanbul park from development. On Wednesday night sporadic protests erupted in some neighborhoods of Istanbul and other cities, with people calling on the government to resign and shouting: “Everywhere bribery! Everywhere corruption!” | |
| On Wednesday morning, Economy Minister Zafer Caglayan and Interior Minister Muammer Guler, whose sons are among 24 people arrested in the corruption investigation, stepped down. A few hours later the environment and urban planning minister, Erdogan Bayraktar, closest among the three to Mr. Erdogan, said in a live television interview that he had resigned under pressure. He also said Mr. Erdogan was personally involved in unspecified property deals that are a focus of the investigation. | On Wednesday morning, Economy Minister Zafer Caglayan and Interior Minister Muammer Guler, whose sons are among 24 people arrested in the corruption investigation, stepped down. A few hours later the environment and urban planning minister, Erdogan Bayraktar, closest among the three to Mr. Erdogan, said in a live television interview that he had resigned under pressure. He also said Mr. Erdogan was personally involved in unspecified property deals that are a focus of the investigation. |
| “The prime minister has the right to work with the ministers he prefers,” Mr. Bayraktar said. “But I can’t accept this pressure on me to resign. The prime minister too has to resign.” | “The prime minister has the right to work with the ministers he prefers,” Mr. Bayraktar said. “But I can’t accept this pressure on me to resign. The prime minister too has to resign.” |
| Soli Ozel, a columnist and professor at Kadir Has University in Istanbul, said: “This is extraordinarily dramatic. Bayraktar was someone who was very close to the prime minister. This is someone you’d expect to fall on his sword without question.” | Soli Ozel, a columnist and professor at Kadir Has University in Istanbul, said: “This is extraordinarily dramatic. Bayraktar was someone who was very close to the prime minister. This is someone you’d expect to fall on his sword without question.” |
| The investigation has been linked to Fethullah Gulen, a popular Muslim spiritual leader in exile in Pennsylvania who has millions of followers in Turkey, including some who hold high positions within the police and judiciary. Mr. Erdogan and others have called them a “criminal gang” and a “state within a state.” | |
| In a televised speech on Wednesday afternoon, Mr. Erdogan used some of his strongest language yet to denounce his former allies in the Gulen movement and promised to dismiss them. “We will root out the bad apples or whatever is necessary,” he said. | In a televised speech on Wednesday afternoon, Mr. Erdogan used some of his strongest language yet to denounce his former allies in the Gulen movement and promised to dismiss them. “We will root out the bad apples or whatever is necessary,” he said. |
| Dozens of high-level police officials, and hundreds of other officers, already have been removed in the government’s attempt to purge the police of those it believes are behind the investigation. Reports emerged in the Turkish news media on Wednesday that prosecutors were pursuing other high-level officials, but that new police officials installed by the government had resisted pursuing them, suggesting a power struggle within state structures. | |
| Although Turkey has faced many upheavals, with coups and power struggles that sometimes turned violent, the current crisis is a new phenomenon: a clash between two Islamist rivals who were once united in overhauling the political system by pushing the military from politics. | |
| Once governed by secularists backed by powerful military generals, Turkey has seen the rise over the last decade of Mr. Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party, known by its abbreviation in Turkish, A.K.P., whose origins lie in political Islam but which has also had partners including liberals and some on the nonreligious right. | |
| Most of the liberals and secular rightists no longer support the A.K.P., and now that Mr. Erdogan and Mr. Gulen, who represent different Turkish Islamist traditions, are basically at war, the party is at risk of collapsing, analysts said. | |
| In another setback for Mr. Erdogan, a prominent A.K.P. lawmaker and former interior minister resigned from the party on Wednesday — not because he was implicated in the corruption investigation, but because of how the government was handling it, dismissing police officers and attacking the judiciary. | |
| “It seems that within the A.K.P. things are spiraling out of control,” said Mr. Oktem, the research fellow at Oxford. | “It seems that within the A.K.P. things are spiraling out of control,” said Mr. Oktem, the research fellow at Oxford. |
| More broadly, the clash is seen by some as a test of the viability of political Islam, and comes after Islamist movements have struggled to maintain power in postrevolutionary Egypt and Tunisia. “What we have seen in Egypt and Tunisia was a fight between Islamists and non-Islamists,” Mr. Oktem said. “What we are seeing in Turkey is between two Islamist movements.” | |
| The question is whether the clash will upend the Turkish political system. “This kind of power struggle between two different Islamist groups might make the non-Islamist, secular groups more powerful, in Turkey’s case,” Mr. Oktem said. | The question is whether the clash will upend the Turkish political system. “This kind of power struggle between two different Islamist groups might make the non-Islamist, secular groups more powerful, in Turkey’s case,” Mr. Oktem said. |
| Mr. Erdogan’s assertions of a foreign plot, implying American and Israeli subterfuge, have angered the United States and damaged his once strong personal bond with President Obama. The State Department, in a statement issued Tuesday, said attacks in the pro-government Turkish news media against American officials were “deeply disturbing.” | Mr. Erdogan’s assertions of a foreign plot, implying American and Israeli subterfuge, have angered the United States and damaged his once strong personal bond with President Obama. The State Department, in a statement issued Tuesday, said attacks in the pro-government Turkish news media against American officials were “deeply disturbing.” |
Dan Bilefsky reported from Paris. Mahmut Kaya contributed reporting from Istanbul. | Dan Bilefsky reported from Paris. Mahmut Kaya contributed reporting from Istanbul. |