AKP fails to pass the corruption test

On Jan. 20, parliament voted on whether to send four former ministers to the Supreme Council to be put on trial on charges of corruption and graft. Three opposition parties, along with around 40 ruling party lawmakers, voted in favor of sending them to the court, but they failed to provide the necessary 276 votes.

Former EU Minister Egemen Ba???, former Economy Minister Zafer Ça?layan, former Urbanization Minister Erdo?an Bayraktar and former Interior Minister Muammer Güler escaped the vote thanks to the direct intervention of President Recep Tayyip Erdo?an.

According to Deniz Zeyrek, the Ankara bureau chief of daily Hürriyet, who reported on the ?behind the scenes? maneuvering of the vote, the nine lawmakers representing the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) at the parliamentary panel tasked to probe the corruption claims against these four former ministers changed their minds after Erdo?an?s intervention. Zeyrek revealed that former Economy Minister Zafer Ça?layan met with President Erdo?an to directly request his intervention in the panel.

In addition, one of these former ministers directly emphasized to Prime Minister Ahmet Davuto?lu that the trial at the Supreme Council would eventually cause a number of unknown affairs of other AKP officials to surface, therefore damaging the party on the eve of the June parliamentary elections. This anonymous minister was indirectly hinting that President Erdo?an could also be dragged into the case, as the corruption operation launched on Dec. 25, 2013 was directly linked to the then-prime minster.

It could therefore be said that the vote that took place last week not only saved these four former ministers, but also helped Erdo?an distance himself from the corruption-related agenda....