Turkey: Third minister quits amid corruption probe

A third cabinet minister has resigned in Turkey in the space of 24 hours amid a corruption scandal.

Denying any wrongdoing, Environment and Urbanisation Minister Erdogan Bayraktar says that he was under pressure to quit and that if he must do so, then Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan should follow suit.

The scandal is increasingly engulfing Erdogan’s Islamist-rooted government.

Bayraktar’s son was briefly detained in the high-level corruption probe.

Interior Minister Muammer Guler and Economy Minister Zafer Caglayan, whose sons are among 24 people in police custody since the affair erupted on December 17, resigned earlier on Wednesday.

Erdogan has denounced the affair as a foreign-orchestrated effort to sow discord in Turkey.