Sarkozy case compared to Turkey's Erdoğan anomaly
July 02, 2014, Wednesday/ 15:53:47/ GÜNAY HİLAL AYGÜN
Almost all Turkish dailies featured on the front page of their Wednesday editions the story of former French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who has been detained by police on the charge of abusing his power to obtain information about an inquiry into him.
According to reports, Sarkozy is being questioned due to suspicions that a network within the top judiciary kept him abreast of a separate inquiry into alleged irregularities in his 2007 election campaign. It was reported that this is the first time in modern French history that a former head of state had been held for questioning. Immediately after the news broke, Turkish commentators began making comparisons between the Sarkozy case and the long series of allegedly illegal practices by the government of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, that have been exposed following the Dec. 17 police raids. Following the police operation which led to the detention of sons of three then-ministers on charges of bribery, a number of allegedly wiretapped phone conversations circulated on social media. In the leaks, government officials including Prime Minister Erdoğan can allegedly be heard discussing bribery and other illegal acts. Erdoğan denied the authenticity of some of the recordings; however, he verified some of the conversations which reveal him meddling in the media and the judiciary.
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