Turkey

Court rules governing party is anti-secular

Article published on the 2008-10-24 Latest update 2008-10-24 13:43 TU

Demostrators in Instanbul support the AKP.
(Photo : Reuters)

Turkey’s ruling AKP party exploited religion for political ends and broke secular laws, but did not promote violence, the country’s constitutional court said in a ruling made public Friday.

The ruling, published in the official government gazette, was an explanation of the court’s July decision that turned down a prosecutors' bid to have the Justice and Development Party (AKP) outlawed.

At the time the court was split, falling one vote shy of banning the party. The AKP was stripped of all state funding, suggesting that the party’s behaviour was anti-secular, but not to such an extent as to warrant closure.

In Friday’s published arguments, the court argued that religious matters had been “turned into central issues in politics at a scale leading to social divisions and tensions,” and that people’s religious beliefs have been “instrumentalised for pure political aims”.

The court singled out Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan as an instigator of the anti-secularism.

"It was found that the head of the party Recep Tayyip Erdogan, member of the party and former parliament speaker Bulent Arinc, education minister Huseyin Celik...were involved in determined and intense activities which were against the article 68 of the constitution," it said.

The AKP’s overtly Islamic policies have drawn sharp criticism from supporters of Turkey's secular system. After being re-elected to power last year, the AKP tried to overturn a headscarf ban in schools, restrict the sale of alcohol and to promote religious education and an Islamic lifestyle, according to the court.

These policies “could undeniably … hamper the functioning of democracy,” the ruling said.

But prosecutors' claims that the party was trying to overthrow the secular system and install an Islamist regime by promoting religious violence were rejected by the court.

The report stressed the fact that Erdogan’s AKP had undertaken ambitious reforms to improve democratic freedoms and human rights, advancing Turkey’s bid to join the European Union.