The Daily Telegraph report from last September has all the makings of a bombshell. According to the article, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan -- who leads the Islamic-rooted Justice and Development Party (AKP) -- received some $25 million from Iran to help his party in a previous election. The charge was especially damning, since Erdogan during the same period had become increasingly vocal in his defense of Iran and its controversial nuclear program.
Erdogan, of course, angrily denounced the article, which provided very little in the way of evidence to back its claim. Now its turns out that the Daily Telegraph's bombshell was more of a dud: the newspaper has now officially apologized to Erdogan, who has not been afraid to take legal action against media outlets in the past.
UPDATE -- Turns out Erdogan has just won a court case in Britain against the newspaper, which has been ordered to pay him a fine of 25,000 British Pounds. More here.
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