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AK Party deputy: US, Netherlands, Norway, Germany want ErdoÄŸan out

17 January 2014 01:21 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. A senior ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) deputy has claimed that a number of Western countries, including the US, Germany, the Netherlands, Austria, Norway and France, want to see Prime Minister Recep Tayyip ErdoÄŸan's term in power end because Turkey's rise disturbs the Western powers, APA reports quoting Today's Zaman.

In a major effort to explain the AK Party's position regarding a recent corruption investigation that has implicated close associates of ErdoÄŸan and led to the resignations of three ministers, a number of deputies were dispatched to several European capitals to woo Turkish nationals ahead of local elections.

In his address to an audience in a gathering in Stockholm on Thursday, AK Party deputy Mehmet Metiner dismissed the graft probe as a concerted plot to topple the Turkish government, assigning the blame on the Western powers for the far-reaching corruption investigation.

Based on the claims of an Ergenekon suspect, former senior National Intelligence Organization (MÄ°T) official KaÅŸif KozinoÄŸlu, who was found dead in his prison cell while the trial was proceeding in 2011, Metiner claimed that the plan was prepared two years ago.

"After the 'one minute' incident, they did not want ErdoÄŸan to stay in power any more," he said, claiming that the Western powers organized the plot to end ErdoÄŸan's term in office. "The intelligence organizations of Norway, the Netherlands, France, Germany, Austria and Israel view ErdoÄŸan's administration as a threat to their national interests," he said.

Participation was lower than expected and most of participants seemed interested in other issues, such as the lifting of visas for Turkish citizens looking to visit the European Union and recent government attempts to change the nature of compulsory military service.

A number of citizens also challenged the AK Party deputies' narrative, asking about shoeboxes. Metiner said the shoebox incident, in which $4.5 million were stashed in shoeboxes kept at the house of the general manager of state-owned Halkbank, was part of the plot.