ISTANBUL, (Reuters) – Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan’s purge of the police command spread to other state institutions yesterday, widening a crackdown on what he described as a foreign-backed conspiracy to undermine him and create a “state within a state”.
The crisis, Erdogan’s biggest challenge in 11 years as Turkey’s leader, raised fears of damage to the Turkish economy and a fracturing in his AK Party, helping drive the lira to a historic low.
Erdogan ordered at least 14 senior police officers removed on Friday after the police launched a series of anti-corruption raids and detained senior businessmen close to Erdogan as well as the sons of three cabinet ministers.
The powerful Istanbul chief was sacked on Thursday following the dismissal of dozens of unit chiefs.
The vice chairman of the financial crimes investigation board, a unit of the finance ministry, was also removed on Friday, local media reported, as well as the editor-in-chief and news channel coordinator of state-owned TV channel TRT.
Erdogan has refrained from naming U.S.-based Islamic cleric Fethullah Gulen, a man with strong influence in the police and judiciary, as the hand behind the raids which shook the political elite. But Gulen’s Hizmet (or Service) movement has been increasingly at odds with Erdogan in recent months.
“This is not one of those crises from which Erdogan can come out stronger,” said Henri Barkey, a Turkey specialist at Lehigh University’s department of international relations.
“The public will ask if this is the result of an evil probe (or) foreign plot, then why are all of these police chiefs sacked?
Erdogan, who has called the raids and detentions a “dirty operation” to tarnish the government, is under strong pressure to resolve the crisis before it hits the Turkish economy hard.
“The problem is this is not happening at a time when the economy is given enough of a buffer to withstand political turbulence.
The fear is that the authorities start to loosen fiscal policy,” said Manik Narain, emerging markets strategist at UBS in London.
