Turkey’s top court said yesterday that Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan and key members of his ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) had been involved in anti-secular activities, a move likely to renew political tensions in the EU candidate country.
The Constitutional Court, Turkey’s highest judicial body, was setting out the reasons for a July ruling in which it decided not to close the AKP for Islamist activities but instead fined it for undermining Turkey’s secular principles.
“It needs to be accepted that the party became a focus of anti-secular activities due to its move to change some articles of the Turkish Constitution,” the court said, referring to an AKP-driven attempt to lift a ban on the wearing of Muslim headscarves at universities.
In a setback to the Islamist-rooted AKP, the constitutional court in June overturned an amendment to lift the restriction, saying it violated Turkey’s secular constitution.
The court’s unexpectedly harsh criticism against Erdogan, who remains Turkey’s most popular politician according to recent opinion polls, is likely to renew tensions in Turkey at a time when it is fighting to limit the impact of a global financial crisis.
Turkey’s top court also found that, among others, Education Minister Huseyin Celik was involved in anti-secular activities.
The constitutional court imposed financial penalties on the party in July but dismissed the prosecutor’s case to have the AKP closed down and to bar Erdogan and other leading members from party activity for five years.
The AKP has been locked in a battle with Turkey’s powerful secularist establishment, including judges and army generals, since it first came to power in 2002. Secularists say the party is seeking to bring religion back to public life, contrary to the Constitution.
The AKP, which won a sweeping re-election last year, denies it has any Islamist agenda.
The ruling, published in the online edition of the official gazette, outlined the arguments on which the court based its decision in July.
Religious matters have been “turned into central issues in politics at a scale leading to social divisions and tensions” and people’s religious feelings have been “instrumentalized for pure political aims,” the document said.
Such policies “could undeniably ... hamper the functioning of democracy,” it said.
The court, however, stressed the AKP had also undertaken far-reaching reforms to improve democratic freedoms and human rights and advance Turkey’s bid to join the EU.
“It is obvious the party has used the powers of government to bring the country in line with the standards of modern Western democracies,” it said.
The court decided to strip the party of half of the state funds it was entitled to this year, it said.
The AKP narrowly survived the case with six of the 11 judges voting in favor of a ban, just one short of the seven required to outlaw the party.
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