LEADERS of Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development (AK) party like to boast that their acronym means “white” or “clean” in Turkish. No longer so. A succession of corruption allegations is sullying AK’s image of probity.
Much mud is being flung over a scandal involving a Turkish charity, Deniz Feneri (“Lighthouse” in Turkish). On September 17th a German court convicted three Turkish men involved in the charity of siphoning off €18.6m ($26m). The money had been raised ostensibly to help needy Muslims, among them Palestinians, Turkish slum-dwellers and refugees in Pakistan. Instead the court found that some funds went to buy real estate in Turkey.
Turkey’s row over corruption | Less than white? | The Economist.