Reza Zarrab

Let's not talk about the unknown. Did Reza Zarrab, a Turkish businessman of Iranian origin, go to the U.S. knowing he would be arrested? Is the U.S. attorney Preet Bharara going to suggest that Ankara has been trying to protect Zarrab from Turkey's Dec. 17, 2013 corruption case? 

I was about to go to bed on Monday evening, March 21, when my cellphone rang at 11:39 p.m. It was Hürriyet's Washington correspondent Tolga Tan??. He told me that businessman Reza Zarrab, a Turkish citizen of Iranian origin, had been arrested in Florida. When I asked him whether there was documentation confirming this, he told me he would send it immediately. 

After the controversial Iranian-Turkish citizen businessman Reza Zarrab was arrested in the U.S. last week, it was not only cheered by thousands of ordinary Turkish citizens but also welcomed by all circles of opposition and dissidence as a fresh chance to weaken the ruling party. This reaction from ordinary citizens who have lost trust in the Turkish judicial system is understandable.

Criminal cases have been filed against two Turkish men accused of crimes related to evading Iran sanctions and credit irregularities received from banks in the U.S., with New York prosecutor Preet Bharara presenting indictments against them on March 24. Bharara is also conducting the investigation into controversial businessman Reza Zarrab, who was at the center of Turkey's December 2013 corrup

After waking up quite early on March 22 and having my required dose of coffee, I took a look at Twitter, which is my tool to measure the blood pressure of the nation.

A Turkish citizen of Iranian origin, Reza Zarrab, had been arrested in the U.S. I get that, okay. But who was this guy Preet Bharara that was mentioned in many tweets? 

A middleman of Reza Zarrab, the shady businessman who was arrested in the U.S. on fraud and Iran sanctions-related charges, has said he wants to tell all he knows and present documents that he believes would contribute to the extension of the probe, daily Cumhuriyet reported on March 24.

Social media has become a crucial platform for many people in Turkey to voice their concerns about what is happening in the country and the neighboring region. In leading social media platforms, U.S.

It was breaking news after Reza Zarrab was arrested in the United States and the indictment about him was immediately unsealed. 

Let's look at what happened piece by piece: 

There is a celebratory mood in anti-government circles in Turkey over the arrest in the U.S. of Reza Zarrab, the Turkish businessman of Iranian origin, who is reportedly also a citizen of Iran and Azerbaijan. He is charged with conspiring to evade U.S. sanctions and transferring hundreds of millions of dollars to the Iranian administration headed by then President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

The fifth penal chamber of Turkey's Supreme Court of Appeals ruled on March 23 for an arrest warrant for a public prosecutor who conducted the major Dec. 17, 2013, graft probe and was later dismissed from the profession.