Turkish corruption scandal is mini coup attempt, says deputy PM

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/dec/31/turkey-mini-coup-attempt-deputy-pm

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Turkey's government has said it is fending off a "mini coup attempt" by elements in the police and judiciary who served the interests of foreign and domestic forces bent on humbling the country.

Ali Babacan, the deputy prime minister, said the ruling AK party had in the past survived military coup plots and attempts in the courts to outlaw the party. It would not now yield to a corruption investigation that he said targeted the government but was already damaging the national economy.

"These latest formations in the judiciary and the police, we can't call it a coup, but a mini coup attempt. This is what interests foreign investors," he told the broadcaster CNBC-e, echoing suggestions by the prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, of a foreign interest in the crisis.

"Maybe the clearest indicator of this was the fall in share prices," added Babacan, who is in charge of the economy.

The market value of Turkish listed companies had fallen $49bn (£30bn) by Monday's market close, he said. The main share index was down 1% on Tuesday.

Erdogan has, without naming it, accused a movement led by the Turkish cleric Fethullah Gulen of creating a "state within a state", using influence in the police and judiciary in a campaign to discredit the government.

The Hizmet (Service) movement controls a global network of schools and businesses. Tensions have grown between the two former allies over elements of foreign and domestic policy and moves to close Gulen's private schools in Turkey.

The graft inquiry became public on 17 December with a series of raids and detentions of senior businessmen close to Erdogan, and of the sons of three ministers. Since then, media hostile to Erdogan have brimmed with tales of police raiding offices or homes and seizing caches of dollar bills.

The president, Abdullah Gul, who has largely stayed out of the furore, made an appeal for unity in a new year's message, stressing the importance of a clear separation of powers.

"It is the duty of all of us to avoid attitudes that damage the fact and perception of an independent and impartial judiciary," he said in the message on the presidency website.

Erdogan's supporters argue that the graft accusations have so far lacked any substance and were driven by political ambitions.

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