Court to consider fate of ruling party, leaders

NICOSIA, Cyprus | Turkey’s balancing act between Islam and secularism goes on trial Tuesday when the Constitutional Court takes up an indictment to outlaw the ruling party and slap a five-year ban from politics on the prime minister and president

A government proposal to let girls wear head scarves in school - struck down by the courts - triggered the indictment against the ruling party and its top officials.

A 160-page indictment accuses the governing Justice and Development Party (AKP) of violating the constitution and of trying to turn Turkey, a secular democracy, into an Islamic state.

The prosecutor is also seeking a five-year ban from politics for 71 party members, including President Abdullah Gul and Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

The trial reflects a longtime conflict between hard-line secular forces backed by the influential army and the growing ranks of those who feel that moderate Islam anddemocracy are compatible.

The Bush administration, though it generally avoids comment on political disputes in other countries, says it is uncomfortable with events in Turkey.

“It would be quite unfortunate if the way a political debate is resolved is through banning a party,” Matthew Bryza, deputy assistant secretary of State for European affairs told the Washington Institute for Near East Policy last week.

“Turkey’s democratic system, its constitutional order is evolving,” he said. “It’s up to Turkey to work that out. It’s not appropriate for the United States to set any ultimata, threats. We really are confident that the Turkish democratic system is strong enough to work this out.”

Last month, State Department spokesman Tom Casey said that the Turkish courts should “consider the will of the people in making their decision.”

Since it was set up in 1963, the 11-judge Constitutional Court has outlawed 24 parties. Members of two of those parties form the bulk of Mr. Erdogan’s AKP.

The European Union has warned Turkey against what many fear is tantamount to a political trial of the dominant party with Islamic roots but Europeanaspirations.

The AKP won a sweeping political victory nearly a year ago. Both the president and prime ministers are its members.

In a comment on the trial, the European Union said that accusations against the government should be debated in parliament and that the verdict should come at thepolls and not from a tribunal.

The events were triggered by a lifting of the ban on women´s head scarves at universities, a style many consider to be an Islamic political gesture rather than a religious statement.

A constitutional amendment was rushed through parliament allowing female university students to cover their heads.

The prosecution presents its case Tuesday and party representatives will answer on Thursday, after which a date will be set for deliberations and verdict.

AKP leaders want the trial to be over as soon as possible to end the political uncertainty and economic jitters increasingly affecting the Istanbul stock exchange.

Mr. Erdogan has ordered his members of parliament to remain in Ankara, the capital, during summer recess.

Under the leadership of Mr. Gul and Mr. Erdogan, the AKP has come further than any other party in modern Turkey to challenging the grip of secular establishment on power.

Mr. Erdogan describes the AKP as “a conservative democratic party,” which wants a secular state with more freedom for its citizens, including the right to wear a head scarf.

In January 1998, the Constitutional Court closed down the Welfare Party - of which Mr. Erdogan was a member - for violating the principle of secularism enshrined in the constitution.

Some Welfare Party members then set up the Virtue Party, which was banned by the Constitutional Court three years later.

Mr. Erdogan and members of both banned parties set up the AKP with pledges to abandon past Islamist views, embrace secularism and promote Turkey as a future EU member.