EU voices concern over Turkey as graft scandal deepens

The European Union voiced its concern over the political turmoil convulsing Turkey as the government conducted a new mass purge of senior police officers.

In its strongest comments yet on the widening corruption scandal engulfing Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the EU yesterday called for Turkish authorities to ensure they acted impartially.

The turmoil has rocked Erdogan's government to its very core just weeks before crucial local elections in March and has sent Turkish financial markets tumbling.

In the latest development, 16 police chiefs in several major cities including Ankara, Izmir, Antalya and Diyarbakir as well as the deputy head of national security, were fired yesterday under a decree signed by Interior Minister Efkan Ala.

The latest purge came just a day after the government fired 350 police officers in the capital Ankara - bringing the total number sacked to over 700 since mid-December when the graft scandal broke, according to local media tallies.

News reports on Tuesday indicated  that another 25 people had been detained on suspicion of bribery and fraud in the widening corruption probe that has targeted several key Erdogan allies.

One of the main prosecutors in the probe, Zekeriya Oz, has also been reassigned following media reports of a Dubai holiday paid for by a Turkish construction company.

"If allegations (of wrongdoing) are proven, I will resign. But if they are proven to be baseless, I expect this honourable act from those who make these accusations against me," Oz said in a statement.

Oz also said he met with two legal officials sent by the prime minister who urged him to end the corruption probe.

"They told me that the prime minister is very angry at me. They asked me to halt the probe and to write a letter to apologise to the prime minister," Oz said about the meeting in a hotel in the western province of Bursa.

Erdogan, currently in Japan on an official visit, denied Oz's allegation.

"The statements made by Zekeriya Oz are lies and slander. It is out of the question that I sent him members of the high judiciary," Erdogan said in a written statement.

Mehmet Tezkan, a columnist with the liberal Milliyet newspaper, wrote that Turkey was going through "one of the deepest crisis in its history. If the allegations are true, it means that the government is rotten to the core."

The EU - which Turkey has long aspired to join - said the crisis was a "cause of concern".