Turkish opposition parties are calling on Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan to resign from his post over wiretapping accusations.
The Republican People’s Party (CHP) and the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) have expressed concern over what local Turkish papers are dubbing the Turkish Watergate.
The calls for Erdogan’s resignation came after an Islamist newspaper on Tuesday published the exact details of a phone conversation between a governor and the number-two man in the opposition CHP party, according to the Turkish Hurriyet.
The CHP says government security forces tapped the phone lines, and accused the government of “harming democratic values.”
The government has vowed to investigate the claims.
“The government should make a satisfactory and convincing explanation to the CHP,”
the party’s General Secretary Onder Sav said.
He said both Erdogan and Interior Minister Besir Atalay should resign.
Atalay has rejected accusations of wiretapping but said the incident would be clarified and will ask for an investigation.
The opposition fears that the ruling Islamic AK party is engaged in anti-secularist activities.
The AK has been accused of lending the country too much of a religious character and of jeopardizing the secular nature of the country and the heritage of its founder, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk.