Turkey: Madness on the Bosphorus

“MUCH talk cannot be free of lies, much wealth cannot be free of illicit gain.” This old Turkish adage was tweeted by a former culture minister, Ertugrul Gunay, just as the prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, was addressing members of his Justice and Development (AK) party in the parliament on January 28th. The message is starting to reflect the public view of the embattled government. More than a month after a three-pronged corruption investigation implicating ministers, close business allies of the prime minister and, even more damningly, his family, the scandal shows no sign of abating.Mr Erdogan is trying hard to paint it all as a plot devised by Israel, America, their financiers and the foreign media. He says their plans to destroy his government and Turkey are being carried out by disciples of his former ally and “bogus prophet”, Fethullah Gulen, a Pennsylvania-based Sunni Muslim cleric, who are embedded in the judiciary and the police. But to many Turks this story is beginning to sound hollow.The reshuffling of thousands of supposedly Gulen-affiliated police, judges and prosecutors because they are part of an attempted “coup” has merely reinforced suspicions of a cover-up. Kemal Kilicdaroglu, the leader of the main opposition, the secular Republican People’s Party (CHP), is having a field day. “Was $ 99,999,990 transferred into Turgev’s account?” he asked in…

The Economist: Europe