Three top members of Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan resigned – All three have sons implicated in the fast-moving corruption investigation involving members of Ergdogan’s party.  And one of the men went on live TV to say that Erdogan himself ought to step down.

“I can’t accept this pressure on me to resign.  The prime minister too has to resign,” said former Environment and Urban Planning Minister Erdogan Bayraktar, believed to be the closest advisor to the Prime Minister to lose his job.  The Economy Minister and Interior Minister had stepped down hours earlier.

The resignations came after a dramatic week in which the government tried to purge the police forces of those investigating the corruption.  Many officers linked to Gulen Movement were targeted.  Until recently, Erdogan was believed to be allied with the Gulen Movement’s leader, Fethullah Gulen, an Islamic spiritualist who lives in exile in the US state of Pennsylvania.  The Gulen movement is linked to private schools located around the world, and critics have accused it of trying to undermine secularism, democracy, and women's rights in and out of Turkey.

The scandal itself involves allegations of illicit money transfers to Iran and bribery for construction projects.  Police discovered piles of cash in the bedroom of a minister’s son and found the chief executive of a state-owned bank had A$5 million in cash packed in shoeboxes.

A defiant Erdogan accepted his ministers resignations and announced a cabinet reshuffle, vowing to fight the corruption probe.