In the wake of first graft investigation against itself going
public, AK Party government reassigned 24 police chiefs, including all the
police chiefs leading the investigations on behalf of the public prosecution
service. Public prosecutors who started the graft probe were discharged and new
prosecutors, who also voted to formally charge the suspects, have been assigned
to ongoing investigations without any request from the existing prosecutors. Re-shuffling
attempts of the judiciary continued in the following days. In less than two
months, AK Party government reassigned about 7,000 police chiefs and officers
in major cities, most of which are from the organized crime division in charge
of investigating corruption, bribery, and money laundering among other things.
In addition, nearly 1,000 judges and prosecutors have faced the same
consequence.
Many people still interpret these actions as an attempt to
obstruct the graft probe as all of these nearly 8,000 people were reassigned
with no proof of joining a “global assassination attempt against the
government,” or a “coup,” or with no solid evidence of collaborating with “the
interest lobby,” or forming a “parallel state” within the state. PM Erdogan’s
remarks never went beyond accusations but successfully crafted into AK Party’s
propaganda strategies on Twitter and in the pro-AKP news and reports.
The interference of Erdogan’s government with the judiciary
system wasn’t the only strategy to win the fight against a ‘ghost’ “parallel
state.” Immediately after the discharges in the judicial system, AK Party fired
800 reporters from the national TV station along with its general director for
being part of the “parallel state!”
Interestingly, many of the discharges in the judiciary
system have been carried out by then Interior Minister Guler whose son has also
been charged along with the sons of Economy Minister Zafer Caglayan and Urban
Planning and Development (aka Environment) Minister Erdogan Bayraktar. Before
stepping down, Guler also removed Huseyin Capkin, Head of the Istanbul
Metropolitan Police Force, from his post and replaced by the mayor of Aksaray,
who has no policing experience whatsoever. Later on, Erdogan passed a bylaw stating
that the police are obliged to inform their superior officers of ongoing
investigations meaning that Guler as the interior minister would be informed by
the police services that his son was being investigated by the police.
As this was happening, the government shocked by a new
development. During his resignation broadcast on Dec 25, Environment Minister
Bayraktar had directly accused the PM Erdogan saying; “for the sake of the
well-being of this nation and country, I believe that the prime minister should
also resign” saying “…the zoning plans that are in the investigation file were
confirmed and made with the approval of the prime minister.” However, as a
recent development, Bayraktar has withdrawn his resignation and apologized from
Erdogan with no reference to his former comments.
Erdogan and AK Party government continue to surprise the
Turkish public with a new attempt every day to obstruct the probes and to
divert public attention away from corruption allegations. His response to the
corruption probe is considered by many citizens as well as by the Western world
evidence of his authoritarian tendencies. His intense and aggressive language
and angry rhetoric in front of public is dividing people more and more every
day and marginalizing AK Party followers into extremes making them believe any
critic of the government’s actions is part of a ‘sinister’ “global
assassination attempt” to destroy the PM Erdogan and his ruling party. It must
be just for this reason that anytime someone criticizes Erdogan or when
something is considered by Erdogan followers and the AKP media as an ‘attack’,
their first reaction is usually to say “we will not let you to victimize
Erdogan.”
Many believe Erdogan is acting in this way on purpose to
divert public attention from graft probe, drain that energy into other channels,
and secure his followers’ commitment in the upcoming elections in March and
thereafter by exploiting nationalist sentiments with arguments such as “second
independence war,” “international masterminds,” and “foreign powers”. Now
everyone wonders! Is Erdogan just angry that his leadership and actions are
being questioned or is he running a successful crowd control operation to
divert attention from corruption scandal by making a convenient scapegoat or is
it both?
Next: What is
Happening in Turkey: Understanding the Conflict – Clash or Survival Struggle?
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