The easiest way in Turkey to get out of a difficult political corner, especially if you have Islamist leanings, is to point at Israel as the country orchestrating developments you don’t like. This is not to naively suggest that Israel does not interfere in the affairs of other countries in an effort to arrange things to its advantage. But to see a Jewish or Israeli hand in every Turkish crisis has become a knee-jerk reaction, even in crises that are blatantly home grown.

The massive corruption probe that went public Dec. 17, the fine details of which have been amply covered by Al-Monitor’s Turkey Pulse, has shaken the Turkish government to the core when crucial local elections are just three months away and presidential elections are due to be held later in the year.

To have four ministers implicated in a bribery scandal involving tens of millions of dollars, a shady Iranian businessman, the head of a government bank, a mayor from the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) and prominent housing contractors who work closely with the government is a political tsunami for Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Erdogan is fully aware that he has few options, if any, that will make him look good as this scandal unfolds. The firing of so many police chiefs by his government after news of the corruption probe broke and the appointment of “supplemental” prosecutors to the case already looks bad for him.