Is corruption suspect's US arrest bad news for Erdogan?
The US arrest of Reza Zarrab, allegedly a key figure in Turkey’s bribery and corruption scandal, has set off alarm bells in Ankara.
The March 19 arrest of Iranian-Turkish gold trader Reza Zarrab in Florida came as a bombshell to Ankara politics. Zarrab allegedly was the key figure running a money-transfer network in 2010-2015 that was designed to evade US sanctions against Iran.
Zarrab allegedly acted on behalf of the Iranian government and Iranian businesses, and there is speculation that he must have made a deal with US authorities.
Zarrab was first detained in Turkey but eventually was released with the government’s help. Many believe that Zarrab had to have known he would be arrested the minute he landed in the United States, and that he wouldn’t have made the trip without a deal worked out in advance. His potential disclosures to the US federal prosecutor will surely implicate Turkish officials and, as such, may well be an instrument of pressure on President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Preet Bharara, the US attorney for the Southern District of New York who prepared the indictments against Zarrab, became a sensation overnight as the Turkish opposition's social media favorite. In just a few days, the number of Bharara's Twitter followers exploded to more than 80,000 from fewer than 10,000. By March 23 he had 190,000 followers. Hundreds of the new fans had Turkish names.
