Turkish PM Erdogan accuses envoys of "provocative actions"

Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan accused some ambassadors in Turkey of involvement in "provocative actions" amid a widening graft probe in which 24 people, including the sons of two ministers, have been charged.
  
"These recent days, very strangely, ambassadors get involved in some provocative acts. I am calling on them from here, do your job, if you leave your area of duty, this could extend into our government's area of jurisdiction. We do not have to keep you in our country," Erdogan told supporters in the Black Sea province Samsun.
    
The U.S. Embassy to Turkey has denied any role in the investigation.

This as sixteen people were arrested in Turkey, including the sons of two cabinet ministers and the general manager of state-owned Halkbank, during a corruption investigation, CNN Turk and other media reported.
   
Scores of others have already been detained in the inquiry, which poses the biggest challenge to Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan's decade-long rule.
 
 
REUTERS