Muhammed Cetin, member of Turkey’s ruling AK Party
A senior Turkish lawmaker of the ruling AK Party has resigned from his political bloc after accusing the government of “protecting thieves” in a high-level corruption investigation.
“Unfortunately, the AK Party has of today become blackened. It has become the architect of a process in which corruption is covered up, thieves are protected and the unlawful has become the law,” Muhammed Cetin told a news conference in parliament on Friday.
The resignation came after the government dismissed or reassigned some 800 police officers in the latest wave of purging of police and judicial officials involved in a corruption investigation.
Cetin was the eighth lawmaker who resigned since the corruption scandal broke in December 2013. AK Party still controls 319 of 550 seats in the parliament.
“There are many members of parliament who cannot stomach what is happening,” he said.
Cetin is close to exiled preacher, Fethullah Gulen, whom Erdogan accuses of using influence with the police and judiciary to engineer corruption accusations ahead of local elections next month. Gulen denies allegations against him.
Dozens of prosecutors involved in the probe into alleged money laundering, bribery and gold smuggling, have been removed from their posts.
The investigation broke out on December 17, 2013, after allies to Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan were arrested on graft charges.
Erdogan was then forced to carry out a major cabinet reshuffle after three of his ministers resigned as their sons were detained in the probe.
The Turkish prime minister has denounced the probe as a “dirty plot” to undermine his government ahead of the local elections in March 2014.
Erdogan has also sacked hundreds of police chiefs.