Major new development in Tukey that is bound to have very many repercussions. Mavi Boncuk |
Police detained at least 49 people, including bureaucrats, well-known businessmen and the sons of three ministers, on Tuesday as part of a major investigation into alleged bribery linked to public tenders. Teams from the financial crimes unit of the İstanbul Police Department carried out dawn raids in İstanbul and Ankara. The sons of Interior Minister Muammer Güler, Economy Minister Zafer Çağlayan and Environment and Urban Planning Minister Erdoğan Bayraktar were among those detained. Other detainees included the mayor of İstanbul’s Fatih district, Mustafa Demir, Turkish construction mogul Ali Ağaoğlu, Halkbank General Manager Süleyman Aslan, Iranian-Azerbaijani businessman Reza Zarrab and bureaucrats from the environment and economy ministries.
See: FT Article December 17, 2013
Business figures questioned in Turkey anti-corruption probeBy Daniel Dombey in Ankara