George Soros's Open Society Foundation said on Monday it would cease operations in Turkey, days after President Tayyip Erdogan accused the billionaire philanthropist of trying to divide and destroy nations.The foundation said it had been the target of "baseless claims" in the Turkish media, which made it impossible for it to continue its work.It also faced an investigation by the Interior Ministry which sought to demonstrate a link, which it denied, between the foundation and protests at Istanbul's Gezi Park in 2013.One of its founders in Turkey, Hakan Altinay, was among 13 people detained 10 days ago.In a speech last week, Erdogan linked those arrests to Soros. “The increase of baseless claims and disproportionate speculation in the media in recent days has made it impossible for the foundation to continue its operations.”

Soros, a U.S.-based financier and philanthropist, and his Open Society Foundation have also come under fire in Hungary. It said the Turkish Interior Ministry was renewing attempts to prove that the Soros foundation was behind the 2013 Gezi Park protests, one of the biggest political challenges to Erdogan’s 15-year rule. The organization announced the news on Monday, days after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan accused Soros of stoking protests to divide the country, referring to the elderly liberal financier as that “famous Hungarian Jew Soros.”

Erdogan accused Soros of controlling Turkish opposition figure Osman Kavala, himself accused of financing and organizing anti-government demonstrations in 2013, and being linked to a failed coup attempt in 2016. This is a man who assigns people to divide nations and shatter them. MONEY TRANSFERS

Kavala, in detention for more than a year, said on Monday in a statement posted on his website that he was still waiting for an indictment to be prepared so that he could prove that the claims he had helped to direct and finance the Gezi protests and wanted to overthrow the government were “unfounded”. "These efforts are not new and they are outside reality," it saidThe foundation said it would apply for the legal liquidation and winding up of the company's operations as soon as possible.
George Soros' Open Society Foundations says it will cease operations in Turkey, stating that "baseless claims" in the media and a government investigation into its alleged role in the Gezi Park protests make its work impossible.