AKP vs. Gulen Church: Tooth for tooth

TURKEY - In Brief 17 Dec 2013 by Atilla Yesilada
Turkey was shaken to the roots today, as a nation-wide graft operation was launched, with reportedly -The sons of Ministers Muammer Guler and Zafer Caglayan, -Turkey’s most famous real estate developer Mr. Ali Agaoglu, -Halkbank GM Suleyman Aslan taken into custody. (No names confirmed officially). According to pro-Gulen TV channel Samanyolu, by 12 noon Turkey time 27 arrests were made with authorities stating that “many more are underway”. In the absence of official statements that is becoming deafening; I report on newspaper headlines and website rumors. First, opposition journalists claim that the resignation of AKP’s Istanbul deputy and former soccer hero Mr. Hakan Sukur from the party was the tell-tale signal that the Gulen Church intended to fight AKP tooth for tooth and eye for eye. The fact that only pro-Gulen news channels devote prominent space to the arrests is another piece of evidence that the Crunch may be behind this. This is probably not an unprovoked assault. Pro-AKP media has been airing frequent commentary that the “junta” within the Church will be eliminated after the local elections. According to opposition press sources, the Gulen Church wants to demonstrate to AKP that they have significant evidence of high-level corruption in their possession and could cause the party to lose the local elections by tainting key mayors with graft allegations. It is very difficult for the combatants to step back after this point. The Rubicon may have been crossed in the negative sense. I still think all this will not significantly affect AKP’s votes in local elections, but the damage is not limited to politics. It is conceivable that the investigations (allegedly)...

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