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Turkish police have arrested the sons of three cabinet ministers as part of an investigation into alleged bribery relating to public tenders.

The sons of the interior minister, the economy minister and the environment minister were detained, officials say.

Businessmen are among at least 20 people arrested in dawn raids in Istanbul and the capital, Ankara.

There is speculation the arrests could be linked to a dispute between the government and a leading Muslim cleric.

In a wide-ranging investigation, police raided the Ankara headquarters of one of Turkey's biggest banks, state-run lender Halkbank.

A senior official at the bank has reportedly been arrested.

Halkbank's shares fell by as much as 5% when the news emerged, but have since recovered, up nearly 2% in morning trading.

Also raided was the headquarters of a large construction company owned by construction tycoon Ali Agaoglu.

Its chief executive, Hasan Rahvali, told the Reuters news agency the investigation related to "claims of bribery against some public officials", but police "could not find any criminal evidence".

Private schools
The sons of Interior Minister Muammer Guler, Economy Minister Zafer Caglayan and Environment Minister Erdogan Bayraktar were arrested in Istanbul.

Turkish political analysts are speculating that the arrests may be linked to a disagreement between Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's government, with its roots in political Islam, and prominent cleric Fethullah Gulen.

Mr Gulen objects to government plans to abolish private schools, many of them run by his Hizmet, or "Service", movement.

Despite living in the US, Mr Gulen is believed to enjoy extensive influence within the Turkish political scene.

Mr Erdogan's government has vowed to deal with Turkey's deep-rooted corruption.

The dispute and the raids come as Turkey prepares for local elections next year. They are being seen as a test of Mr Erdogan's popularity after protests earlier this year against what many saw as his authoritarian style.

Istanbul deputy and former professional football player Hakan Şükür has announced his resignation from the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP).

In a statement released after news of his resignation emerged, Şükür cited the government’s stance in its rift with the movement of Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen over plans to shut down exam prep schools.

“The AKP has put its signature to many important successes and reforms over the past 11 years, but the senseless attitude adopted since the dershane [prep-school] issue broke out has offended many conscientious people,” said Şükür, a former Turkish international player who is known for his close ties with the Gülen movement.

“Making dershanes seem like the only source of educational problems in Turkey, when there are tens of educational problems waiting to be solved, is not the right approach at all. This approach does not fit with the line that the party has represented for the past 11 years,” he added.

Şükür, who was elected as the AKP’s Istanbul deputy in the June 2011 elections, will remain in Parliament as an independent deputy. After Şükür left the party, the number of AKP deputies dropped to 325, while the number of independent lawmakers in the Parliament increased to seven.

The row between the Gülen movement and the AKP escalated after daily Taraf revealed Nov. 28 that the government had signed a National Security Council (MGK) decision recommending an action plan against the Gülen movement in 2004. The government then decided to set September 2015 as the deadline for the “transformation” of prep schools into private schools, but the tension does not seem to have been defused.

“I have known and loved the Hizmet [Service] movement and Hocaefendi [Gülen] for more than 20 years. Treating these sincere people, who supported the government on every issue that they thought was for the good of the people - particularly in the [2010 constitutional] referendum, when they visited people door to door to persuade them, and transported thousands of people from abroad to vote, and prayed for the AKP not to be closed-down – as if they are enemies, is nothing but unfaithfulness,” Şükür’s resignation statement read.

“These people, whose dershanes are being closed, who have been ousted from public institutions, and who are subject to profiling and pressuring practices that have been described as immoral by our party managers, are the sons of this nation,” it also added, slamming many circles for remaining silent or joining “the choir to finish the Cemaat [Community].”

Şükür’s break with the government is the second recent example, following AKP Kütahya deputy İdris Bal’s resignation on Nov. 30. Bal had earlier been sent to the AKP’s disciplinary board after expressing dissenting statements on a number of issues, including the government’s stance on the Gezi protests and the prime minister’s opposition to co-ed student housing, but the final straw was apparently his condemnation of the move to scrap dershanes.

Turkish police chiefs who reportedly oversaw a wave of high-profile arrests for bribery have been removed from their posts in Istanbul.

Five police chiefs were removed in Istanbul a day after 52 people were picked up, including three sons of cabinet ministers.

A senior member of the government suggested the investigation was aimed at "tarnishing" its reputation.

But Deputy PM Bulent Arinc stopped short of blaming any particular group.

The arrests are being seen by correspondents as part of a feud between Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's government and an influential former ally, the US-based Islamic preacher Fethullah Gulen.

Mr Gulen once backed the ruling AK Party, helping it to victory in three elections since 2002, and members of his Hizmet movement are said to hold influential positions in institutions from the police and secret services to the judiciary and the AK Party itself.

In recent months, the alliance began to come apart and in November the government discussed closing down private schools, including those run by Hizmet.

In a speech after Tuesday's wave of arrests, Mr Erdogan vowed not to bow to any "threat" or "dirty alliances" aimed at creating division within the ruling party.

"Turkey is not a banana republic or a third-class tribal state," he said, speaking in the city of Konya, an AK stronghold. "Nobody inside or outside my country can stir up or trap my country."

But Mr Erdogan appears to have alienated a crucial element of his electoral support and his undeclared ambition to run for president in 2014 may be under threat, the BBC's James Reynolds reports from Istanbul.

'Abuse of powers'
The five police commissioners sacked include the heads of the financial crime and organised crime units, who were both involved in the earlier arrests, the Turkish daily Hurriyet reports.

Also dismissed were the heads of the smuggling unit, the anti-terrorism branch and the public security branch, the paper says.

In a brief statement, the police said they had reassigned some staff, in some cases due to alleged misconduct and others "out of administrative necessity".

The officers had "abused their powers", police were quoted as saying by AFP news agency.

The mass arrests were carried out as part of an inquiry into alleged bribery involving public tenders.

The sons of Interior Minister Muammer Guler, Economy Minister Zafer Caglayan and Environment Minister Erdogan Bayraktar were among those detained.

Police also raided the Ankara headquarters of one of Turkey's biggest banks, state-run lender Halkbank, and the headquarters of a large construction company owned by tycoon Ali Agaoglu.

Police searching the home of detained Halkbank general manager Suleyman Aslan have found $4.5m (£2.7m; 3.2m euros) in cash hidden in shoe boxes in his library, Turkey's Dogan news agency reports.

The arrests were made as part of three separate investigations, according to Hurriyet

An inquiry into allegations of a crime ring involving Azeri businessman Reza Zarrab (arrested), in which cabinet ministers were bribed in order to cover suspicious money transactions to Iran through Halkbank, and to obtain Turkish citizenship
An inquiry into Abdullah Oguz Bayraktar (arrested), son of the environment minister, on suspicion that he set up a crime ring and accepted bribes from major firms in exchange for construction permits in areas under the ministry's supervision

An inquiry into allegations that protected areas of Istanbul's Fatih district were developed illegally in return for bribes and that district mayor Mustafa Demir (arrested) allowed the construction of a hotel, ignoring negative reports from engineers and state institutions
There was no response to the allegations by those arrested.

Mr Arinc insisted the government would not intervene in the investigation.

"The judicial process should be concluded swiftly and carefully," he said. "We will always respect any decision made by the judiciary and will not engage in any effort to block this process."

Fethullah Gulen has been living in the US since 1999, when he was accused in Turkey of plotting against the secular state.