Turkey ends 2013 with a massive corruption scandal centering on the country’s Islamist-oriented Justice and Development Party (AKP) cabinet ministers and potentially the family members of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Faced with a serious corruption scandal, Erdogan took a firm position against the criminal justice system. Muammer Akkas, the prosecutor who was overseeing the graft probe, was removed on Dec. 26. Akkas issued a written statement on the same day directly accusing the Erdogan government of interfering with the judiciary. He called upon all those responsible in the judicial system to take a stand in favor of upholding the highest standards of the rule of law.
