Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has fired his senior adviser Serkan Taranoglu amid an unfolding corruption scandal in the country, which may involve people from the entourage of the Turkish leader, Bloomberg reported.

Erdogan made the decision to dismiss Taranoglu the day after the Turkish opposition parties filed a collective lawsuit demanding to investigate the scheme to extort bribes from companies trading on the Istanbul Stock Exchange. The opposition claims that people close to the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) may have been involved in the corruption schemes.

The opposition, in turn, used the revelations of alleged criminal mastermind Sedat Peker, who fled Turkey in early 2020. On Tuesday, he published a series of corruption allegations against Taranoglu and another Erdogan adviser, Korkmaz Karac.

The Turkish prosecutor's office has not yet decided whether to launch an investigation. The probe could increase pressure on Erdogan ahead of next June's presidential election, as his approval ratings could be at an all-time low, Bloomberg noted.