The Republican People’s Party, which is the main opposition, says it believes the recordings are authentic. Its officials are demanding that the government resign and Erdogan leave the country.
Erdogan says the recordings were fabricated and called for legal action against those responsible. The Associated Press has not been able to authenticate the recordings, which the New York Times reports have apparently been scrubbed from the Internet.
The Guardian says that the recordings were made on Dec. 17 of last year, the same day that three cabinet ministers’ sons were detained in a corruption and bribery probe.
According to Euronews, Erdogan told Parliament on Tuesday “this is a treacherous attack against the Prime Minister of the Turkish Republic. I would like to underline this is not an attack against Recep Tayyip Erdogan or the leader of the AK Party. This is a callous attack against Turkey’s Prime Minister.”
He has also stated that the Gulen movement, a moderate Islamic group led by US-based cleric Fethullah Gulen, orchestrated the original probe into the ministers’ financial affairs in an attempt to sabotage upcoming local elections in March and Presidential elections in August.
Gulen, who lives in exile in Pennsylvania, has denied any involvement.
Daily Milliyet newspaper journalist, Asli Aydintabas told Euronews:
“If true, this would actually be different in the sense that this is hoarding money in your home. So far, the things we’ve heard are… about the prime minister getting favors… exerting his influence in the media, but this is actual money, cash, changing hands…”
In recent weeks the government has been widely criticized for firing hundreds of prosecutors and thousands of police officers in addition to passing tough new laws strengthening its censorship of the Internet, the New York Times reports.
