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 Development Party (AKP) to the Constitutional Court, court president Hasim Kilic said.
"Attached ... is a demand that 71 individuals be banned from political activity," Kilic said, adding that Turkish 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 target of this case is not the AKP, but Turkish democracy and Turkish people," deputy party chairman Mehmet Mir Dengir Firat said after an emergency meeting of the AKP's leadership.
"This is the biggest injustice committed against Turkey, our democracy, the will of our nation, our peace and stability, our prestige in the world," he said.
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.
Last year, the row climaxed when the AKP promoted Gul as president and secularist pressure forced Erdogan to call a snap election, which handed the party a solid victory and a second term in power. Tensions flared again last month when the AKP pushed through parliament a controversial reform to allow women to wear the Islamic headscarf -- - viewed by many as a sign of defiance against secularism -- in universities.
Many analysts here see the row as a transition of power from a secular urban elite to more conservative middle-class circles in rural areas that the AKP largely represents.
"Certain judicial institutions should not use the law as a tool in the struggle for power ... Democracy and law should not be forced into a face-off," Firat said.
Gul, who had to resign from the AKP before he could take up his role as president, urged Turks not to overreact to the dispute.
Judges will start studying the indictment against the AKP tomorrow to decide whether to accept the case, an official said.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese
RIVER TRAGEDY: Local fishers and residents helped rescue people after the vessel capsized, while motorbike taxis evacuated some of the injured At least 58 people going to a funeral died after their overloaded river boat capsized in the Central African Republic’s (CAR) capital, Bangui, the head of civil protection said on Saturday. “We were able to extract 58 lifeless bodies,” Thomas Djimasse told Radio Guira. “We don’t know the total number of people who are underwater. According to witnesses and videos on social media, the wooden boat was carrying more than 300 people — some standing and others perched on wooden structures — when it sank on the Mpoko River on Friday. The vessel was heading to the funeral of a village chief in