The so-called “parallel state,” which the Turkish government accuses of organizing a plot in last year’s corruption probe, started illegally gathering information on the government after two major crises with Israel, Interior Minister Efkan Ala has said, saying the “mind of the plot is abroad.”
“The Dec. 17 graft probe is only one phase of a process that started much earlier,” Ala was quoted as saying by Sabah, a daily newspaper close to the government, on the first anniversary of the corruption investigation, which embroiled Cabinet ministers, their relatives and a number of bureaucrats.
“We should considering the process from the ‘one minute’ incident. Everything starts at that point,” he said, referring to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s storming out of a World Economic Forum panel with Israeli President Shimon Peres on Jan. 29, 2009, after angrily protesting against the moderator and repeatedly shouting “one minute” in English.
“The hands of this plot attempt are inside the country while its mind is abroad,” Ala added, also highlighting the Mavi Marmara incident that occurred more than a year after Erdogan stormed out of Davos.
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In a Dec. 17 speech in the Central Anatolian province of Konya, President Erdogan also slammed “dirty international powers” and the “parallel state.”
“Those who are under protection in Pennsylvania cannot come here,” Erdogan said, referring to Gülen, who lives on a ranch in the U.S. state.
“Let them move together with the enemies of Turkey, with the Turkey-enemy media, with dirty international powers, and with their beloved country in the south,” he added, using a phrase he had previously used in apparent reference to Israel.
More: Hurriyet Daily News
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