Corruption wave may hit Erdogan claims newspaper

During the investigation of a corruption scandal in Turkey, phone conversations made by Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan were tapped, Milliyet newspaper reported on Dec.18.

According to the newspaper, in the previous year, Istanbul police received information about serious corruption violations and during this year phone conversations of a number of the country's officials including the prime minister were tapped.

Turkish officials have not commented on the newspaper report yet.
Turkish police have recently conducted special operations in Istanbul and Ankara, resulting in the arrest of 52 people that includes businessmen and sons of some ministers.

The detained businessmen are accused of corruption, smuggling and selling drugs.

The sons of Interior Minister Muammer Guler - Baris Guler, Minister of Economy Zafer Caglayan - Salih Kaan Caglayan, and Minister of Environment and Urban Planning Erdogan Bayraktar - Oguz Bayraktar are said to be among those arrested. All three were detained on suspicion of corruption.

The ministers are the members of the Turkish ruling party.

Mayor of Istanbul's Fatih Municipality, Mustafa Demir, a businessmen engaged in construction, one of the heads of state Halkbank, as well as several officials from the Ministry of Economy and Ministry of Environment and Urban Planning were arrested during the same operation by the police. Searches were conducted at Halkbank's office.


/Trend/