President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has intervened to prevent four of his former Ministers from a hearing in Turkey’s top court over corruption charges.
Members of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), serving on a Parliamentary panel investigating the claims of graft by businessmen and politicians, intended to send them to the Supreme Council. At a 2 1/2-hour meeting at the Prime Ministry on December 21 — hosted by Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu and including the four former ministers — Davutoğlu said it would be better if the ex-ministers went to the Supreme Council voluntarily.
The ex-ministers held out, sending former Economy Minister Zafer Çağlayan to Erdoğan to appeal their case. The AKP members subsequently changed their minds about the referral to the Supreme Council.
“Apart from [commission head] Hakkı Köylü, all other members of the panel are young and want to continue in politics and be re-elected [to Parliament]. That should have an effect,” said one AKP official.
Çağlayan, Interior Minister Muammer Guler, Urban Planning Minister Erdogan Bayraktar, and European Union Affairs Minister Egemen Bağış resigned or were dismissed as more than 50 people, including the sons of ministers, were detained in December 2013 in the corruption scandal.
Erdoğan and his son Bilal were also implicated but escaped legal action.
