TURKEY: Ruling Party Risks &#39Closure&#39

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Analysis by Hilmi Toros

ISTANBUL, Mar 20 2008 (IPS) - After four military interventions since 1960, another elected Turkish government risks being overthrown – this time by the judiciary.

The Chief Prosecutor has asked the Constitutional Court to close the Islamic-rooted governing party and ban President Abdullah Gul, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and 69 other senior party members from political activity for five years.

The charge: their alleged design to replace the 85-year-old secular regime with a religious one. The Justice and Development Party (AKP), which won a stunning 47 percent of the vote in the parliamentary elections last July, is an offshoot of two Islamist parties also closed down, but claims it is only "conservative", with no intention of dismantling the established secular regime.

Chief Prosecutor Abdurrahman Yalcinkaya&#39s sudden claims, in a 162-page indictment, shocked the country and led to a chorus of criticism both at home and abroad.

"Would it not be easier to close the country and ban democracy," columnist Taha Akyol wrote in his influential column in the daily Milliyet. Joost Lagendijk, Dutch Member of the European Parliament, and chairman of the EU-Turkey Commission, said he found the closure call "incomprehensible."

The indictment, if upheld, has been described by some commentators as amounting to a "coup by the judiciary" in a "Republic of Judges".

The prosecutor&#39s move came days after the Constitutional Court agreed to review whether constitutional amendments lifting the ban on headscarves at universities, spearheaded by the AKP and pushed through Parliament last month, run counter to the overriding article in the Constitution on the unchangeable secular nature of the republic.

The AKP, according to the prosecutor&#39s charges, is "a hotbed of anti-secular activities" bent on introducing the Islamic Sharia law using democracy as a tool and, failing that, go for Jihad to achieve its aim.

Detailed charges by the prosecutor, based on public statements and actions from 1981 up to the last few weeks, include measures for gender separation in some public places, attempts to restrict alcohol sale, and allowing headscarves at a hospital despite the ban. The charge says some AKP mayors are acting as imams, and that Islamists are infiltrating state jobs.

Challenging Erdogan&#39s claims that he has changed his past Islamist views, the indictment quoted him as saying on one occasion: "I won&#39t change. I can&#39t change." The indictment also says he was the imam of Istanbul when he was its mayor.

The indictment quotes Erdogan as saying that "sovereignty does not belong to people but to God. Secularism would be cast aside if people desire to do so."

Erdogan, who spent four months in jail for inciting religious hatred over an Islamic poem he read out, denied charges of anti-secularism. "This is a step against the national will," he said.

Since its electoral victory in its first attempt in 2002, the AKP has steadily increased its influence: it now has 340 seats in the 550-member parliament, enabling it to pass all legislation requiring simple majority.

The AKP also captured the presidency last year despite objections by the secular military. In President Gul, a founder of AKP, the party has one of its own for ratifying legislation and appointments, although Gul left active politics upon assuming presidency.

So far, the military has kept silent. Its known position is that it would intervene to protect the secular order.

That leaves the judiciary and the academia, appointed by the previous secular administrations, as two effective opponents to the presumed drive towards injection of religious values into society. But future vacancies for senior judicial posts and university presidents will be filled by President Gul.

"The judiciary&#39s case is strong and well documented," Istanbul attorney Koray Argun told IPS. "Considering its current make-up, the court could close the party. A closure move is unlikely in the future when the composition of the court changes."

Eight of the Constitutional Court&#39s 11 members have been appointed by former president Ahmet Necdet Sezer, a staunch secularist who often vetoed AKP decisions when in office. Approval of seven is required for the case to proceed. The legal process could last months.

Argun says that if the party is closed, a new one will be formed, as was the case when two previous parties were shut down on grounds of being anti-secular. The new party could function in the same parliament and form a new government, but without those banned such as Erdogan. President Gul would carry on since presidents are immune to prosecution. He could be banned only after his seven-year term as head of state.

Turkey has what has been called the world&#39s largest "graveyard" of political parties." Since 1963, 24 political parties have been closed, some on charges of extreme ideology, others for being against secularism, or pro-Kurdish ones seen as espousing separatism.