Turkey’s Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has slammed the high-level corruption probe that has led to dozens of arrests – including the sons of two of his government ministers.

Erdogan called it a “smear campaign” against his government and a “dirty game.”

“There are networks in the state that were used as tools in this trick. We are spoiling the game. In the same way that we disrupted the Gezi Park protests, now we will spoil this game too,” Erdogan said.

Following the controversial police raids, dozens of police chiefs have reportedly been sacked.

Commentators in Turkey believe that the arrests and firings could have been driven by a feud within the ruling AK Party – between supporters of Erdogan and those who back exiled Islamic cleric Fethullah Gulen.