The underpinnings of a banana republic for Turkey?
Turkey's Prime Minister Recep Erdogan blames a growing corruption scandal on shadowy foreign plotters
- Topics:
- Turkey
- Muslim Brotherhood
- International
When it comes to political conspiracy theories, Turkey might be a regional trailblazer. Since the formation of the modern republic in 1920s, Turkish politics has been typified by competing conspiracy theories ranging from the mundane to the absurd. Even today, best-selling books line mainstream bookshops claiming, among other things, that the country’s prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, is secretly Jewish and a pawn in an American plot to take over Turkey.
While conspiracy theories are nothing new to the Middle East, their prevalence in Turkey is informative when analyzing the current crisis engulfing the country. On Dec. 17th, dozens of people, including the sons of high-profile ministers in the Turkish cabinet and the head of state-run bank Halkbank, were swept up by police on graft charges. The corruption probe has led to the resignation of three top ministers, the reshuffling of the prime minister’s Justice and Development Party and an unprecedented challenge to Erdogan’s reign as the undisputed king of Turkish
What kind of Jihad is This? Gulen Charter Schools in America -Turkish probe marks AKP-Gulen power struggle
Turkish probe marks AKP-Gulen power struggle - Features - Al Jazeera English: About Gulen charter schoolsIn 1999, members of the Gulen Movement, a secretive and controversial cult-like religious group,opened their first charter school in the U.S. (in Ohio). Rapid expansion of the Gulen Movement's network has resulted in the largest charter school chain in the U.S. (See my guest article in the Was
