ERDOGAN’S PARTY MAY FACE LEGAL PROCEEDINGS
PanARMENIAN.Net
23.05.2007 15:12 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ The secularist establishment in Turkey is currently
laying the groundwork to prepare the files for a case to force
the closure of the Justice and Development (AK) Party headed by PM
Recep Tayyip Erdogan on the grounds that it is encouraging Islamic
fundamentalism.
Such files are compiled at the office of the Chief Prosecutor of the
Supreme Court of Appeals. If the chief prosecutor finds sufficient
evidence to launch a case for the closure of a political party he
takes the issue to the Constitutional Court, the New Anatolian reports.
In the past the Constitutional Court has closed down several
pro-Kurdish and Islamist parties. The last Islamist party to be closed
by the court was the Welfare Party (Refah Partisi) led by former Prime
Minister Necmettin Erbakan. Most AK Party officials and ministers came
from this party and are thus branded as "people with Islamic roots."
The secularists opposed the presidential candidacy of Foreign Minister
Abdullah Gul saying someone with his Islamic background should not
be head of state.
The presidential election was a test for the secularist establishment
to flex its muscle and the fact that the secularists prevented the
AK Party from electing its candidate as head of state showed the
weaknesses of the government. The secularist challenge came in the
form of a military ultimatum presented to the government on April 28
and three mass rallies in Ankara, Istanbul and Izmir that hurt the
AK Party.