ANKARA — Turkey's deputy police chief was sacked overnight, the most senior commander yet targeted in the purge of a force heavily influenced by a cleric Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan accuses of plotting to seize the levers of state power. Erdogan's AK Party sent plans to parliament allowing government more say over appointment of prosecutors and judges. Erdogan argues that a judiciary and police in the sway of the Hizmet (Service) movement of cleric Fethullah Gulen contrived a graft investigation now shaking his administration. The police website said the deputy head of the national police, Muammer Bucak, and provincial chiefs, among them the commanders in the capital Ankara and the Aegean province of Izmir, were removed from their posts overnight. The government has purged hundreds of police since the graft scandal erupted on Dec. 17 with the detention of dozens of people including businessmen close to the government and three cabinet ministers' sons. Among the dozens questioned, most have been released. A remaining 24, including two of the ministers' sons, remain in custody, according to local media. Details of the allegations have not been made public, but are believed to relate to construction and real estate projects and Turkey's gold trade with Iran, according to Turkish newspaper reports citing prosecutors' documents. The affair, exposing a deep rift within the Turkish political establishment, has hit market confidence, driving the lira to new lows. Erdogan has cast the graft investigation, which poses arguably the biggest challenge of his 11-year rule, as an attempted "judicial coup" backed by foreign forces. Allies of Erdogan rgue that the accusations have been fabricated. Gulen, who lives in the United States, denies involvement in launching the corruption investigation which broke into the public view three months before local elections that will constitute a test of Erdogan's popularity. — Reuters
