Turkey goes hard against high-ranking police officers before: More than 50 current and former top officials have been arrested – they are accused of corruption and abuse of office.

Already the end of last year there had been in Turkey arrests in police circles highest – now new incidents are reported. In a nationwide operation on Tuesday at least 55 high-ranking police officers have been arrested. As several television reported unanimously, they are accused of corruption and abuse of office. The news agency Reuters even reported of 76 detainees.

40 current and former officers of the police were in Istanbul alone, therefore arrested, including the former head of urban anti-terrorist unit. Investigators are said to have carried out unauthorized wiretapping against the inner circle of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan among others.

In the media the procedure was unanimously considered as a blow to the movement of the Islamic preacher Fethullah Gülen and Erdogan rivals.

Background is a power struggle between Erdogan’s conservative Islamic Party for Justice and Development (AKP) and the movement of the exiled Gülen, who should have many followers especially in the judiciary and police.

Erdogan was due to an alleged plot against his government since late last year en masse police officers, judges and prosecutors forced move or arrest.

The trigger was the arrest of many politicians and business leaders from the environment of the Erdogan government in December last year. Istanbul prosecutors had arranged this time. Politicians and managers involved in a widely branched corruption scandal has been accused, in which it comes to illegal gold transactions with Iran, bribery and illegal building permits. As a result of the affair and the Turkish cabinet was reshuffled.

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