Fire the cops: Under pressure over a corruption investigation that implicates his government, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has purged the police force in the capital city. Some 350 detectives were exiled to rural areas or downgraded to traffic cops this week, joining more than a dozen of their top commanders who were fired earlier. Erdogan’s critics say the dismissals are an outrageous attempt to interfere with the judicial process. “This is a panic attack by a government acting in haste to prevent further corruption probes,” Turkish journalist Kadri Gursel told The New York Times. The corruption probe alleges that ministers accepted bribes to help a construction tycoon with ties to Erdogan.
