It might have been an ordinary, pleasant Christmas for most of the world, but Dec. 25, 2013, will go down in history as a sheer nightmare for Turkey’s once seemingly invincible, unchallenged and popular prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The day saw three key cabinet ministers step down, as Erdogan's once solid political power shattered, and his government sank deeper beneath a massive graft probe the includes accusations of bribery involving four ministers and amounts roughly totaling $130 million. Later that day, Ergogan felt compelled to reshuffle the cabinet, replacing 10 ministers, which nonetheless still left him treading uncertain political waters. His days of glory and arrogance, and as the focus of admiration, have turned into a fraught, open-ended quest for political survival.

In addition to their prime minister woes, Turkey’s anxious citizens have also had to face the bitter fact that after some two years of arduous but fruitless work, the multiparty, parliamentary Constitution Commission was disbanded due to the constant absence of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP). The exercise thus ends with no progress to report on a new, civilian social contract. The latter was expected, but what has shaken Turkey are the resignations of three key AKP ministers, all implicated in the corruption scandal. 

Economy Minister Zafer Caglayan and Interior Minister Muammer Guler announced their resignations on Christmas, but denied any involvement in corruption or bribery. They said their resignations were aimed at helping the “truth come out.” The real shocker came with the third resignation, by Environment and Urban Planning Minister Erdogan Bayraktar, who made the surprise announcement through the NTV news channel instead of using the semi-official state news agency, which would have been standard procedure for his harshly worded resignation.

Bayraktar said that he had been pressured to submit his resignation "to save the prestige of the government," adding that the prime minister should also quit because most of the amendments to construction plans mentioned in the corruption investigation were made on Erdogan's orders. Bayraktar — who was in charge of the massive Public Housing Project Administration (TOKI) and is seen as the "black box" for dealings in that context — revealed that Erdogan had pressurized ministers to issue a "declaration to comfort the prime minister," adding that Erdogan had given the final "go ahead" to all the key decisions associated with the accusations. In addition, he said he was forced to sign a “declaration of resignation” aimed at "relieving the prime minister and his government." Bayraktar resisted, stating, "However, I [did] not accept the pressure put on me to resign due to the corruption and bribery operation and issue a declaration that will relieve the prime minister.”