TURKEY’S CHIEF PROSECUTOR ASKS TO BAN AKP
PanARMENIAN.Net
15.03.2008 14:30 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Turkey’s chief prosecutor has asked the
Constitutional Court to ban the governing AK Party led by
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, accusing it of anti-secular
activities. Abdurrahman Yalcinkaya said he believed that there was
enough evidence to show the party had been contravening Turkey’s
secular constitution.
The AK Party, which has Islamist roots, won last year’s general
elections, so any move to close it will be extremely controversial. The
AKP is already locked in a battle with Turkey’s secular elite, backed
by the powerful military, over recent changes on the headscarf issue.
The Constitutional Court is reviewing an appeal by the main pro-secular
opposition party on the validity of parliament’s constitutional
amendments in February to allow women wear Islamic headscarves at
universities.
The AKP has argued that the headscarf ban unfairly bars large numbers
of girls from higher education in a nation where about 66% of women
wear the scarf. Many secularists in the country equate the wearing
of the headscarf with political Islam.
In a surprise announcement, Mr Yalcinkaya, the chief prosecutor
at the Court of Appeals, said he had filed a court request for the
closure of the AKP. He also revealed that the party had been under
investigation for six months.
Speaking on Turkish television later on Friday, an AKP lawmaker
said he was shocked at the news. The lawmaker said that senior party
officials and lawyers were now holding an emergency meeting in the
capital Ankara.
The AKP has its roots in an Islamist party that has been banned. But
the government of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan – which is
negotiating for Turkey to join the EU – has always insisted that its
political views have changed, BBC reports.