Turkish prime minister loses aura of invincibility Just two weeks ago - before the emergence of a bribery and corruption scandal that has rocked his government - Turkish prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan appeared as he has for much of his last decade in power: invincible. But as Mr Erdogan returned on Wednesday from a trip to Pakistan to face the media, that familiar aura had vanished. Just that day, he was forced to replace ten ministers as the scandal pushed closer to the core of his government. Erdogan Bayraktar, the outgoing urbanisation and environment minister, had the audacity to tell reporters that the prime minister had full knowledge of his actions and should follow him out the door. The fast-moving scandal has revealed a split between Mr Erdogan and his erstwhile political ally, Fethullah Gulen, a cleric who leads a rival Islamist movement. It has riveted the Turkish public. And it has raised unfamiliar questions about the prime minister's command. He's a one man show. He wants to control the police and the judiciary and has no understanding of the separation of powers," said Hasan Cemal, a columnist who was dismissed from Milliyet newspaper after a very public row with Mr Erdogan. The prime minister's troubles started just over a week ago when prosecutors launched a raid on the homes of prominent civil servants and businessmen. Among those taken in for questioning were the sons of three prominent cabinet ministers - two of whom are still in detention. The most startling arrest was the head of the state controlled Halkbank, who was allegedly discovered with $4.5 million in cash tucked away in shoeboxes in his library. The revelations were a shock for a government accustomed to getting its way. Since Mr Erdogan came to power in 2003, he has succeeded at taming the country's powerful military while sidelining dissenting newspaper columnists like Mr Cemal. After appearing caught off-guard, Mr Erdogan has since gone on the offensive. He dismissed the investigation as a political vendetta against him. Meanwhile, police were taken off the case, new prosecutors were appointed and the ministers who were in the direct line of fire were asked to step down. Like trees in the forest, these dismissals were concealed in an overall cabinet shake-up in which ten new ministers were installed. In the past, Mr Erdogan has been able to rally his political base as a champion of public morality, talking up his opposition to abortions and caesarean sections and even opposing male and female university students sharing the same flat. But it is not clear that this lockdown strategy will have the intended effect. One public prosecutor, Muammer Akkas, was in open rebellion on Thursday, issuing a press statement accusing his superiors of a dereliction of office by refusing to carry out a new wave of search and seizures. "All my colleagues and the public should be aware that I, as a public prosecutor, have been prevented from carrying out an investigation," Mr Akkas said. Mr Gulen, who Mr Erdogan has blamed for helping to orchestrate the investigations through his legion of followers, has also sought to turn up the pressure. "Those who don't see the thief but go after those trying to catch the thief, who don't see the murder but try to defame others by accusing innocent people - let God bring fire to their houses, ruin their homes, break their unities," he said in a video recording. Under pressure, the government has resorted to a new tactic: blaming an international cabal of working in tandem with Mr Gulen to orchestrate the investigation. Outgoing economics minister Zafer Caglayan had a stab at what Turkish officialdom now dubs the "interest rate lobby" - those financial circles which want to see Turkey weak and its deposit rate high. "We stomped on their foot and now we are going to cut off their artery," Mr Caglayan told reporters at the handover ceremony to his successor. Turkey's central bank has for some time been pursuing a policy of supporting the lira to keep rates low. It has done so on the assumption that capital inflows would return to normal by next year. "It looks like the central bank is hoping that all the bad things will go away and pressures on the lira will disappear in the new year," said Murat Ucer, analyst for Global Source Partners. Yet analysts are now bracing for the likelihood that the Erdogan government will remain in a political maelstrom well up to nationwide municipal elections scheduled for this March.