Zafer Ça

The main opposition People's Republican Party (CHP) will send a delegation to the U.S. to attend the hearing of Reza Zarrab, an Iranian-Turkish businessman who was arrested in Florida last week, in a bid to observe the case closely, the party's deputy parliamentary group chair said March 28.

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.

The U.S. Department of Justice announced on March 21 that Iranian origin Turkish businessman Reza Zarrab had been arrested on charges of "engaging in hundreds of millions of dollars' worth of transactions on behalf of the government of Iran and other Iranian entities, which were barred by U.S.

Dear Reader,

On Wednesday, April 15, Prime Minister Ahmet Davuto?lu presented his party?s election manifesto to the public. The following was compiled with sentences from Davuto?lu?s speech and various news stories.

The names of four former cabinet ministers who were accused in Turkey?s largest ever corruption probe are not on the April 7 candidate list of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP).

Muammer Güler, one of the four former ministers who resigned after Turkey?s huge corruption probe broke on Dec. 17, 2013, has announced in a written statement that he will not run for parliament in the June 7 general elections.

Zafer Ça?layan, a ruling party deputy who was among the four ministers accused in Turkey?s largest ever corruption probe, has announced that he will not run for parliament in the June 7 general elections.

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.

The Justice and Development Party?s (AKP) members of a parliamentary panel tasked with probing graft claims against four ex-ministers originally intended to send them to the top court, but an intervention by President Recep Tayyip Erdo?an changed their minds, it has emerged.

Opposition parties have said the results of the parliamentary vote acquitting four ex-ministers facing corruption charges showed a decline in confidence in the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) and an internal uneasiness within the party over the allegations.