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Press Room Turkey's top court will hear case for banning Islamic-rooted ruling party
| Turkey's top court will hear case for banning Islamic-rooted ruling party |
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| Written by International Herald Tribune | |
| Tuesday, 01 April 2008 | |
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Turkey appeared to be heading for months of political uncertainty and disruption of government policy after the top court unanimously voted to hear a case for banning the Islamic-rooted ruling party.
The decision by the Constitutional Court Monday highlighted the power struggle between the secular establishment and allies of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, pious Muslims who have advocated Western-style reforms as part of Turkey’s bid to join the European Union.The decision also tests the institutions of a democracy with an authoritarian legacy, and has deepened concerns that the political rift is hurting an economy that emerged from chaos in 2001 to become a magnet for foreign investment. The prosecutor asked the court to bar 71 people, including Erdogan and President Abdullah Gul, from politics for five years. If Gul is banned from politics, he could remain as president because the post is meant to be apolitical, despite perceptions that Gul's staunchly secular predecessor, Ahmet Necdet Sezer, vigorously sought to undercut the government with his veto power. The court's admittance of the case amounts to a victory for the ideological heirs of Turkish national founder Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, who occupy posts in the military, judiciary and bureaucracy and see themselves as defenders of the secular order against forces that seek to impose Islam on society. Erdogan, however, represents a newly empowered class of Muslims who say their piety is compatible with a commitment to the secularism espoused by Ataturk. They say their opponents seek to preserve privileges by curtailing religious freedoms and other democratic rights. "We should not forget something, which is that there can be differences in our lifestyles, ethnic roots, beliefs and sects," Erdogan said in an address on national television. "These differences is richness which make us stronger rather than weaker." "I am saying again, none of our differences can prevent us from joining hands for our common goals and uniting around our republic's principles and national values," he said. Erdogan's address was apparently recorded before the court ruling, and shown after it. The Justice and Development Party, known by its Turkish acronym AKP, has 340 seats in the 550-seat parliament. If it is shut down, its members could regroup under the banner of a new party to lead the government. However, a ban on the party could slow or derail government policies, including free speech legislation and other reforms linked to Turkey's EU bid. The European Commission on Monday termed the legal maneuvering in Turkey as excessive. "I do not see any such justification for this case," EU Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn said. In the EU, he said, "the kind of political issues referred to in this case are debated in the parliament and decided through the ballot box, not in courtrooms." Senior AKP lawmaker Nihat Ergun told Turkey's NTV television that the party would seek a constitutional change to make it harder to disband political parties, a strategy that could trigger protracted wrangling in Parliament. Some analysts say the ruling party has squandered political capital that it earned at the ballot box last year, pushing hard for constitutional amendments that would allow women to wear Islamic head coverings at universities at the expense of a broader policy platform that could have aroused fewer suspicions about government intentions. Istanbul's stock market closed 1.23 percent lower on Monday, partly because of traders' concerns over the court decision. The Turkish lira slid 1.7 percent against the U.S. dollar, according to Central Bank figures. |
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