On Saturday, thousands of people were gathered in Manisa, a town in Turkey's Aegean region, to greet and support Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan as he fights to redeem his administration from the multimillion-dollar corruption and bribery investigation that has implicated senior government members, Deutsche Welle reported. Many have speculated that Erdogan's political rivals in the Gulen movement, headed by preacher Fethullah Gulen, used associates in the judiciary and police to bring the scandal to light.
"With your support and if God allows, we will win this struggle. There are only 90 days until [local] elections, and I want all of you to show everybody who owns the national will in this country," Erdogan told voters in Manisa. His address came 10 days after news of the scandal began to break.
Although a defiant Erdogan vows to rid the government of what he calls "illegal organizations" or a "parallel state," pundits and veteran journalists say the affair may jeopardize the over ten-year reign of Erdogan's Justice and Development Party (AKP).
Turkish citizens have been shocked by pictures of millions of euros found in shoe boxes at the home of the director of Halkbank, a state-owned bank, and pictures of money counters found at the residence of a former interior minister's son.