Erdogan hits back at WikiLeaks claims

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Saturday again denied that he owns secret Swiss bank accounts, claims made by US diplomats in confidential documents released by online muckraker site WikiLeaks, and criticized opposition leaders for insisting that the claims be disproved. "A politician who wants a stronger foreign policy profile (for Turkey) wouldn't greet (such) claims with shouts of joy," Erdogan told a meeting of university rectors in his office at the Dolmabahce Palace. "He wouldn't tell his premier to get documents from Switzerland. Something that doesn't exist has no documents." About the leaks, he asked if they are "meant to disclose state secrets, or is there another aim? Is the publication of these cables a full disclosure of all secrets, as (WikiLeaks) claims? Or is it an operation in which certain documents are filtered through a censor within a clear timetable? Is it spreading veiled, dark propaganda? Are there efforts to manipulate relations between certain countries?"