Scandal Threatens To Bring Down Islamist House of Erdogan - Erdogan Uses The Scandal As An Excuse To Make Turkey Even More Totalitarian

Remember, Erdogan is Obama's best friend.

From the New York Times:

... Turkey’s own political crisis, set off by a corruption scandal that has played out like a serial drama through the steady flow of leaked telephone conversations. The most sensational one was released Monday night, an apparently wiretapped conversation in which Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, worried about an investigation closing in, is heard telling his son to get tens of millions of dollars out of the house.   

Mr. Erdogan’s office has dismissed this latest bombshell disclosure as a fabrication. But it has inevitably heightened the sense of crisis that has enveloped Turkey since the corruption scandal burst into public view in mid-December with a series of dawn raids on the homes and offices of associates of Mr. Erdogan. 

The crisis has damaged Turkey’s already troubled economy. The currency tumbled again on Tuesday while opposition lawmakers called — and not for the first time — for the government to step down, with one official saying Mr. Erdogan should either resign or flee the country “by helicopter.” 

For many Turks, the disclosures represented just the latest episode of a continuing, and opaque, national obsession, one that played out Monday night in predictable fashion. Social media went into overdrive — along with government censors, apparently, as the original leak suddenly became unavailable to many Internet users here — while the mainstream Turkish news media stayed largely silent. 

Mr. Erdogan did not stay silent, though. His office quickly released a statement saying, “Phone recordings published on the Internet that are alleged to be between Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his son are a product of an immoral montage that is completely false.” The statement promised that legal action would be taken. 

“Those who framed this dirty plot against the prime minister of the Turkish Republic will be held responsible within the law,” it said. 

Adding to the suspense, Mr. Erdogan went on to hold a late-night meeting with his spy chief and his interior minister. The Turkish public was left to wonder what would come next, given the aggressive steps the government had already taken to contain the crisis. 

So far Ankara has purged thousands of police officers and hundreds of prosecutors and passed new laws permitting censorship of the Internet and increasing government control over the judiciary — both of which have attracted widespread condemnation abroad.