Major corruption scandal in Turkey

Turkish police have scrambled to defend its anti-corruption efforts as a court formally charged and jailed 19 police officers for taking bribes at a border crossing. It a scandal that is likely to increase pressure on * Photo: The famous Turkish Bath house - P.R.Naag* Turkey to reduce rampant corruption as a condition for acceptance into the European Union. Corruption has long been woven into Turkish life. But this week's scandal highlighted a deep-rooted problem in the political and economic system in Turkey, which recently opened membership talks in the EU. The scandal, documented by cameras hidden inside heaters at the Kapikule Customs Gate on the Bulgarian border, is an embarrassment to the three-year-old government of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who has sworn to wage a war on corruption. In an effort to distance itself from the suspects, Turkey's police made a vigorous anti-corruption statement on Friday. "We don't look at the job titles of the people committing crimes," police spokesman Ismail Caliskan told reporters in Ankara. Late on Friday, a court in Edirne, the closest city to Kapikule in Thrace, charged and jailed 19 officers for "forming an organised crime ring and taking bribes". Earlier, prosecutors released nine other policemen, implicated in the scandal, pending trial. No trial date was set. The arrests follow those of 44 customs officers on Thursday at the same Kapikule Customs Gate on the border between Turkey and Bulgaria. Truckers trying to cross the border were commonly forced to pay 10 euros to passport control, 10 euros to an inspector, another 10 euros to the stamping agent, and 2.5 euros for a bag from duty free, CNN-Turk private television said, quoting one truck driver who said: "Bribery is the law here."