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Thousands of demonstrators have taken to the streets in Turkey demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan. This comes amid a widening corruption scandal rattling his government. Over 5,000 people are reportedly rallying in Istanbul. There are reports of tear gas in clashes between police and demonstrators. Protesters are also gathering in the capital Ankara and also in Izmir and other cities. Huseyin Bagci, Professor of International Relations at Middle East University, gave the Voice of Russia his insight on the issue.

- Should we expect that the demonstrations will escalate? Could 2014 bring a new wave of violence to Turkey?

- I don’t think so. First of all, tomorrow there will be some demonstrations, definitely. But it will not be the same as it was the case in Gezi. The Government’s position since a couple of days has got much more difficult and Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan is facing the most serious ever political try in his career. He has never met such a reaction not only from his own party, but also from the people outside the parliamentary opposition.

Whatever it is, we are going to observe the Government losing credit more and more among the Turkish people and also they are losing credits abroad. The Turkish Prime Minister’s accusations that the foreign forces are beyond these developments are not justified. Turkey is not going to be an undemocratic state, so Tayyip Erdogan has to step down and open the way for the judiciary. At the moment, since we have a new Cabinet, it will take a little bit of time for those protests to increase.

- If they do for some reason increase, do you think Erdogan would be able to deal with them?

- This is the main question – how he is going to manage this situation. This is for the first time in the Turkish history and no government, technically speaking can overcome these accusations. Erdogan’s advantage is that he is in power for 11 years, he has changed his ministers yesterday and he is trying to create confidence again.

But I do not expect that Turkey is going to have the same conditions as it had before. Tayyip Erdogan is facing a strong opposition from the society, as well as from his own political party.

If he manages the situation, then he’ll become president. But if he fails, then he is definitely not going to become president, nit under these conditions, as it is the case today.

- But would it be wise of the Turkish people to keep in power a leader, who has already once shown that he can be suspected of corruption?

- Since these allegation came out Turkey is returning to a normal democracy. Those allegations have to be investigated and the Government should prove that they are not true. If the allegations are true, then no power can stop the Government and Tayyip Erdogan will experience what the opposition in the parliament means and his party is not going to win the elections, if he is not changing his position.

- Do you think the cabinet reshuffles could bring any positive changes, or are they completely pointless?

- My expectation is that he’s learnt all the lessons from this crisis, but he will not be able to prevent the further increase of opposition outside and inside the Parliament. There is a division among his political party lines and in a couple of days I do expect more resignations. The expectation is also that his presidential candidacy is under threat if he will not clean up from all these allegations.