ANKARA
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan held a meeting with the ten newly appointed ministers on Thursday in capital Ankara after his cabinet reshuffle which replaced the three ministers whose sons stand accused in the recent anti-graft probe and others who left office to run in the approaching municipal elections set for March 30.
The Istanbul-based anti-graft operation launched on December 17 led to the arrest of two dozen high-profile bureaucrats and businessmen, including the sons of Minister of Economy Zafer Caglayan, Minister of Internal Affairs Muammer Guler and Minister of Environment and Urbanization Erdogan Bayraktar.
Erdogan called the probe a "dirty operation" aimed at undermining his administration and at hampering the country's progress.
This is Erdogan's fourth cabinet since becoming Prime Minister in 2003.
The newly appointed ministers attended the cabinet meeting for the first time. Minister of Energy and Natural Resources Taner Yildiz, former Minister of Transport, Maritime and Communication Binali Yildirim and former Minister of Justice Sadullah Ergin also attended the meeting.
The ten new ministers include: Deputy Prime Minister Emrullah Isler, Minister of European Union Affairs Mevlut Cavusoglu, Minister of Family and Social Policies Aysenur Islam, Minister of Family and Social Policies Aysenur Islam, Minister of Science, Industry and Technology Fikri Isik, Minister of Youth and Sports Akif Cagatay Kilic, Minister of Transport, Maritime and Communication Lutfi Elvan, Minister of Interior Affairs Efkan Ala, Economy Minister Nihat Zeybekci and Minister of Justice Bekir Bozdag who left his old post as deputy prime minister.
The meeting ended early in the morning.
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