Turkey: prosecutor moves to ban ruling party

Mar 14, 2008, AFP:

Turkey's chief prosecutor on Friday accused the country's president and prime minister of undermining secularism and moved to ban them from politics and to prohibit their Islamist-rooted party.

Abdurrahman Yalcinkaya, chief prosecutor of the court of appeals, submitted his case against the Justice and Develomment Party (AKP) to the Constitutional Court, the latter's president Hasim Kilic said.

"Attached... is a demand that 71 individuals be banned from political activity," Kilic said, adding that Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and President Abdullah Gul, a former AKP member, topped the list.

The constitutional court has yet to say whether it will agree to hear the complaint, which charges that the AKP has become a focal point for attempts to overturn the strictly secular ethos that underlies Turkey's constitution.

The AKP, whose roots in a now-banned Islamist movement have sown fear among secularist circles, branded the case as a blow to democracy and said it would "continue its fight for democracy with determination" ...

The prosecutor's move is the latest round in the AKP's bitter battle with Turkey's secular forces -- among them the army, the judiciary and academia -- which has raged since the party came to power in 2002.

Secularists accuse the party of having a secret plan to introduce religious rule in the mainly Muslim country. The AKP rejects the charges and says it is fully committed to secularism ...

Details of the prosecution's case were not officially available, but media reports said easing the on-campus restrictions on the headscarf and failed AKP attempts to limit the sale of alcohol were presented as evidence.

Prosecutor Yalcinkaya had previously warned he would oppose the headscarf change, which he alleged was intended "to alter the secular character of our republic".

The constitutional court has in the past banned several of Islamist parties, among them the Welfare Party of Turkey's first Islamist Prime Minister Necmettin Erbakan, who used to be Erdogan's mentor.

Judges will start studying the indictment against the AKP on Monday to decide whether to accept the case, Hasim Kilic said ...

AKP In Shock:

AKP is in a state of shock, having learned of the filing of 1000 page long indictment by Turkey’s top prosecutor to close down the party. PM Erdogan learned about the indictment when he was in the party headquarters and currently he is having an emergency meeting with law experts within his party.

According to media reports the indictment includes the request to ban AKP leaders from politics and details all the anti-secular activities, correspondence, communications and statements of AKP leaders and their interactions with Islamist sects, movements and organizations.

Process Begins On Monday:

Soon after yesterday's filing of an indictment by Chief Prosecutor demanding to close down the ruling party [AKP], the head of the High Constitutional Court Hasim Kilic spoke briefly to reporters. He said that the file was received and the legal process would begin on Monday. He said that the process will be similar to the ones that ended up with the closure of two Islamist parties of Necmettin Erbakan before: Refah (Welfare) Party in 1998, and Fazilet (Virtue) Party in 2001 - both of which were President Gul’s and PM Erdogan’s former parties ...

Previous government of Bulent Ecevit had passed a law in 2001 that made the closing down of political parties more difficult, by making an absolute majority of court members necessary. Therefore seven out of the 11 justices of the Constitutional Court will have to vote “yes” for AKP to close down.

"Judicial Move Against The People, Not AKP":

Erdogan told the cheering crowd that AKP was founded by the people’s will and only the people could close it down. He said ... “Nobody can say that the AKP is hotbed of anti-secularism”. He said that those who were responsible for this disgrace would bear the consequences; and would live in shame. Erdogan said that no storm could deter AKP from its march and nobody had the power to stop them.

Erdogan Attacks Judiciary With Koranic Verse:

The PM slammed the judiciary for the “unfortunate” indictment and as the audience booed he silenced them and added, “Some people have eyes but they don’t see, they have ears and they don’t hear, they have tongues but don’t speak the truth”. Erdogan’s words were taken from the Koranic verse of the A’Raf sura that says, “Be it known that we created some men to be sent to hell. Those have hearts that don’t feel, they have eyes but they don’t see, they have ears but they don’t hear […] They are like animals, even more confused [than animals]. They are the real ignorant”.

Sanliurfa is PM Erdogan’s next stop in the mainly Kurdish southeast Turkey where AKP and Islamist sects – including Fethullah Gulen’s network – are busy Islamizing the region. Increased religiosity has helped AKP gain much of the votes in this region in the last general elections.

Stuck in a loop: elect an Islamic party, ban an Islamic party, elect another Islamic party, ban it ...

Meanwhile, Muslim fundamentalists continue to outbreed the secular. How long before the judiciary and military is Islamicised? And then where will you be? Up the proverbial creek without an Ataturk to paddle you out ...

Via Jihad Watch

And recently, in Spain, Erdogan said on the headscarf issue:

"Even if turban is worn as a political symbol, wearing a political symbol cannot be considered a crime. Can symbols and signs be banned? Where else in the world is there such a ban? It is now banned in a country where the population is 99% Muslim. We will solve this problem in the shortest time possible."