100,000 Turks Rally Against Corruption
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ANKARA, Turkey — Nearly 100,000 workers marched in the Turkish capital Sunday to press for anti-corruption measures after reports linking mobsters, politicians and police.
“We are here to show the gangs trying to overtake our government that we, the workers, are the real owners,” said Bayram Meral, head of Turkey’s largest confederation of labor unions, which organized the rally.
A November traffic accident involving a car carrying a legislator, a police chief, a wanted hit man and a beauty queen drew allegations of state ties to the underworld.
The fugitive was Abdullah Catli, who allegedly provided a gun and false passport to Mehmet Ali Agca, the Turk who shot Pope John Paul II in 1981.
The scandal has already cost the jobs of an interior minister and several police chiefs.
Marchers also expressed their dissatisfaction with the Islamic-led government on many fronts, including soaring inflation and what they said were attempts to undermine secularism.
Police said they detained 26 people.
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