Istanbul - Turkey's Prime Minister made a full-throated denial Tuesday, denouncing telephone audio recordings that have exploded across Turkish social media and political circles like a bombshell.
The leader of one of the country's main opposition parties, meanwhile, leaped onto the controversial recordings, playing them at an appearance before lawmakers.
The recordings appear to be wiretaps of a series of conversations allegedly between Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his son, Bilal. The two men in the recordings discuss in detail how to hide vast amounts of money.
The recordings were allegedly made the day after a wide-reaching corruption investigation ensnared the sons of three Cabinet members. Bilal was questioned but never detained in the investigation.
"This is not an attack on Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the leader of the AK Party, but an attack on the Turkish Republic," the Prime Minister thundered Tuesday in a weekly speech to parliament members from his ruling Justice and Development Party, or AKP.
Erdogan labeled the audio recordings "immoral edited material."
"They are listening to the government's encrypted phones; that's how low they have sunk," Erdogan continued, denouncing a series of lobby groups that he has long accused of plotting to overthrow his government.
Erdogan has pledged to investigate corruption within his government. But the Prime Minister has also denounced implications that his family is involved in the scandal.
On Tuesday, protesters took to the streets in the wake of the scandal. Police in Istanbul used tear gas and water cannon to try to push protesters back.
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