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Hundreds of Turkish police removed from posts Hundreds of Turkish police removed from posts
(about 3 hours later)
About 350 Turkish police officers have been removed from their posts in Ankara overnight, CNN Turk said, in the biggest single reported police shakeup since a corruption investigation rocked the government last month. Hundreds of Turkish police officers have been dismissed from their posts overnight and some moved to traffic duties, local media reported, further undermining a corruption investigation which the prime minister says is a covert attempt by a rival to usurp state power.
Hundreds of police have been dismissed or reassigned across the country since the investigation emerged on 17 December with the detention of businesspeople close to the government and the sons of three cabinet ministers, who subsequently resigned. Tayyip Erdoğan – who is facing the biggest challenge of a 10-year rule that has seen the military banished from politics, the economy boom and Ankara press its influence in the Middle East – has portrayed the operation as a "dirty plot" by followers of a US-based Islamic cleric. The cleric backs no political party but enjoys broad influence in the police and judiciary.
About 250 people, mostly from outside Ankara, have been appointed in place of the reassigned officers, who will take up duties in traffic police departments and district police stations, broadcaster NTV reported. The government has hit back by sacking or reassigning hundreds of police across the country since the investigation emerged last month, and a second investigation into large infrastructure projects championed by Erdoğan has been blocked.
Ankara police declined to comment on the reports. About 350 officers in Ankara, including members of the financial and organised crime, smuggling and anti-terrorism units, were dismissed or reassigned overnight to new roles, including traffic or district duties, the media reports said.
Ankara police declined to comment.
Prosecutors meanwhile deepened their investigations, with at least 25 more people, including public officials, being detained as part of an investigation into the activities of a port in the Aegean province of Izmir, broadcaster CNN Turk said.
"Neither side appears willing to give up at this stage in this high-stakes battle for control of the state," said Timothy Ash, head of emerging markets research at Standard Bank.
The scandal is shaking investor confidence at a time when the lira currency is languishing around record lows, inflation is rising and growth slowing. As much as its Islamist-rooted ideology, Erdoğan's AK party has relied on its avowed commitment to fight corruption and its economic record to garner support.
Erdoğan and the Hizmet movement of cleric Fethullah Gulen, which exercises influence through a network of contacts built on sponsorship of schools and other social and media organisations, accuse each other of manipulating the police and compromising the independence of the judiciary.
"Purges, or more accurately massacres, are being carried out of civil servants who are fulfilling their duties defined by the law," Gulen said in a letter to President Abdullah Gul, written as the row intensified in late December but published by the pro-government Yeni Safak newspaper on Monday.
Erdoğan, who has won three general elections and remains widely popular, casts the scandal as an attempted "judicial coup", a foreign-backed plot by those jealous of his success.
The clash between the erstwhile allies has spiralled into one of Erdoğan's biggest challenges. His decade in power has seen strong economic growth and stability but growing concern about what critics see as his authoritarian style.
Hundreds of thousands took to the streets last summer in anti-government protests that Erdoğan also portrayed as part of a foreign-backed conspiracy.
The scandal – which exploded on 17 December with the detention of businessmen close to the government and sons of three cabinet ministers – has weakened the AK party before local elections due in March and presidential polls in August.
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