George Soros’s Open Society Foundations group has said it will cease operations in Turkey, days after the Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, accused the billionaire philanthropist of trying to divide and destroy nations.
The organisation said it had been the target of baseless claims in the Turkish media that made it impossible for it to continue its work.
It also faced an investigation by the interior ministry that sought to demonstrate a link, which it denied, between the foundation and protests at Gezi Park in Istanbul in 2013.
One of its founders in Turkey, Hakan Altinay, was among 13 people detained 10 days ago. They were accused of supporting jailed rights activist Osman Kavala in trying to overthrow the government through mass protests.
In a speech last week, Erdoğan linked those arrests to Soros. “The person [Kavala] who financed terrorists during the Gezi incidents is already in prison,” he told a meeting of local administrators.
“And who is behind him? The famous Hungarian Jew Soros. This is a man who assigns people to divide nations and shatter them. He has so much money and he spends it this way.“
The foundation said that “new investigations” were trying to link it to the Gezi protests. “These efforts are not new and they are outside reality,” it said
The foundation said it would apply for the legal liquidation of its operations as soon as possible.
