Turkey ‘takes $100 billion hit’

Sweeping corruption probe that shook core of Erdogan’s adminstration was ‘plot aimed at tarnishing Turkey’s prestige’.

ANKARA: The political crisis engulfing Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has cost the economy $100 billion, a top official said on Monday, as financial markets rebounded after days in freefall.

Deputy Prime Minister Bulent Arinc said a sweeping corruption probe that has shaken the core of Erdogan’s adminstration was a ‘plot aimed at tarnishing Turkey’s prestige at home and abroad’.

“We are talking about damage of over $100 billion,” Arinc said after Turkey’s first cabinet meeting since a major reshuffle last week forced by the resignation of three ministers over the probe.

Erdogan has vowed he would survive what he has branded a ‘dirty’ plot to try to topple him. The turmoil has exposed rifts within his own Justice and Development Party and a power struggle with US-based cleric Fethullah Gulen.

The government has suggested that Gulen loyalists, who wield considerable influence in the police and judiciary, were forcing the corruption inquiry to undermine Erdogan in the runup to the March elections.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 31^st, 2013.