Turkey

Court to decide on AKP's fate

Article published on the 2008-07-29 Latest update 2008-07-29 13:05 TU

Turkey's constitutional court.
(Photo : AFP)

The eleven judges of Turkey’s constitutional court began a second day of deliberations Tuesday over whether to ban the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) for pursuing an overly religious agenda. They are set to meet every day until they come to a decision on whether Prime Minister Recep Tayyop Erdogan’s party violates the Turkish secular constitution.

The prosecution’s main argument is against the AKP’s constitutional reform in February that overturned a ban on wearing headscarves in universities.

The AKP, a breakaway splinter of an already banned Islamic political party, remains very popular in the country after winning a majority in July 2007 parliamentary elections.

“The constitutional court has closed political parties in Turkey before,” said correspondent Jasper Mortimer. “What happens is that they just change their names and continue. This is a well practiced trick. And certainly if the AKP party were to do that, it would have more than enough lawmakers in Parliament to form the next government.”

Outlawing the AKP could set off a political crisis and would ruin Turkey’s chances of joining the European Union.

“There’s no way the European Union will allow Turkey to join the club when its court system is allowed to ban the party that has won the majority in the recent elections,” said Mortimer.

Recent foreign investment in the country came largely with the belief that Turkey would soon join the EU. “With that possibility closed in the short to medium term, investment will drop off,” Mortimer said. “So, Turkish people are going to suffer because this will have a severe economic impact.”

The prosecution has also called for President Abdullah Gul, Erdogan and 69 other AKP officials to be banned from politics for five years.