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Press TV has conducted an interview with Stephen Lendman, author and radio host, Chicago about the top Turkish officials arrested over graft allegations and the Turkish police clashing with protesters.

- Do you agree with the government’s version of this story saying that this is a smear campaign against the AK party saying that there are elements to basically destroy the credibility of this government?

- I honestly don’t believe anything that comes out of the Erdogan government.

It’s been a while, but I wrote about a street protest that went on for over two weeks last summer and has been intermittent since then.

I’m certain there is a lot of corruption in Turkey. There is a lot of corruption in many countries. No country is more corrupt than my own America – that’s another issue altogether.

I’m sure in Turkey Erdogan’s dirty hands are all over the corruption issue, but the real issue in Turkey is its extremist repressive government and that’s what the protests are all about.

They began when a plaque was to be dismantled to develop that area for commercial reasons and it grew from that into something much bigger. The Turkish people have been so badly deprived stricken with unemployment, with poverty.

Neo-Liberal harshness is the term I like to use and Erdogan is very closely connected with Western interests and the Turkish people are suffering very much.

So the real issue with Turkey is police state repression. And corruption just makes it all the worse.

- Do you think that the government was caught by surprise by this graft probe? It certainly came as a surprise in the media, but do you think this was something that was in the making? Or how are you interpreting this graft probe and where it’s rooted?

- Well, it may be a distraction I honestly don’t know I haven’t really kept current of what’s happening form day to day in Turkey, but I know Erdogan has to be concerned because he knows there is mass opposition to his government.

Ordinary people simply want him to leave. They’re not about to depose him violently. They really would like him to simply step down and have new elections and get a new government in place. He’s been there a very, very long time. They want a government that represents them. Erdogan certainly does not and I think that’s the issue.

So, maybe he’s distracting the public with this issue. There’s a very strong possibility that’s what’s going on.

I would add that he’s arrested a lot of police chiefs. And there was a report that in Ankara the capital city police chief was killed. Did Erdogan kill him? I don’t know. Maybe he was an opponent I don’t know. But you have to watch these things and wonder what really is going on.

- Erdogan was seen as having a good start maybe by a lot of observers when he did become the prime minister in Turkey. From what stage on do you think his popularity started to wane? Do you think it was his foreign policy, his regional policy – what was it mostly about.

- As I recall I think he was very popular when he was elected and I think re-elected, but the combination of economic harshness in Turkey combined with Erdogan’s foreign policy mainly aligning with Washington in waging war against Syria - He has great popular opposition internally to that war.

Combined with everything else Erdogan has done to the great majority of Turkish people, which is the reason they want him out and they want a new government in place.