Feeling blue

摘要

WHEN it comes to sex scandals, Turkey is in the top league. Over the past weeks a series of compromising videos posted online has forced the resignation of ten senior members of the far-right Nationalist Action Party (mhp). Spy cameras placed in assorted boudoirs captured the men in the act; one allegedly with a 16-year-old girl. The videos' distributors say the exposes will continue until they have forced out Devlet Bahceli, the mhp leader. The scandal could have an important effect on a parliamentary election on June 12th. Many mhp officials say the ruling Justice and Development (ak) party is behind the videos, ak, they say, aims to push the mhp under the threshold of 10% of the vote needed to win seats in parliament. (The mhp currently holds 70 out of 550.) This would give ak more seats and allow Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the prime minister, to write a new constitution tailored to enhance his presidential ambitions.