by Emin Avundukluoglu
ANKARA
There is an international conspiracy to destabilize Turkey in the run up to the presidential elections on August 10, according to a deputy and former journalist from Turkey's ruling AK party.
Samil Tayyar says that increasing acts of terror in the east and south east of the country are attempts to prevent Erdogan becoming president.
For the past two weeks there have been demonstrations by residents of a town in the south eastern Diyarbakir province against security outposts under construction. Two demonstrators were killed in unrest which was followed by protests in many regions. A masked demonstrator pulled down the Turkish flag at the gate of a key military headquarters in the city of Diyarbakir.
"The powers which stood behind the Gezi-park protests and the anti-graft operation launched on December 17 are also standing behind the recent incidents in Lice district," Tayyar says. Erdogan blames the Gulen movement for the graft investigations.
Tayyar expects potential operations from this "parallel" group to occur during the presidential election process but predicts they will not be "as stong as the operation launched in December", which led to the arrest of high-profile figures including the sons of the three ministers as well as several businessmen in an anti corruption probe.
"It is possible that they can carry out some operations in the different regions of Turkey where there are still strong," Tayyar said, and he added, "They can especially carry out some foreign-based operations by publishing some videos of our prime minister, as PM said" said Tayyar.
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