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Cocaine video scandal deals blow to Turkey's ruling party

A video that emerged of a member of Turkey's ruling AKP doing cocaine has stirred controversy, but it remains to be seen if the damage will be lasting.

Kursat Ayvatoglu is seen snorting what appears to be cocaine in a leaked video
A screen grab from an undated video shows Kursat Ayvatoglu snorting what appears to be cocaine in his luxury SUV. — YOUTUBE/CNNturk

The scandal enveloping Turkey’s Justice and Development Party (AKP) government over a leaked video showing one of its members snorting what appears to be cocaine shows no signs of abating, with the opposition casting the affair as proof of the corruption and moral rot pervading the Islamists’ ranks after nearly two decades in power.

During a stormy session in parliament on March 31, opposition lawmakers continued to assail the AKP over the video. Ozgur Ozel, a lawmaker for the main opposition Republican People’s Party, said, “Those photographs, those videos … unveil the path to which the Justice and Development Party has strayed, the decay and the degeneracy in which it finds itself.”

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