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| Europe |
| Turkish court to hear AK Party closure on July 28 |
| 2008-07-23 |
| ANKARA - Turkey's highest court will begin deliberating in a case to close the governing AK Party for suspected Islamist activities on July 28, a court official said on Tuesday. The Islamist-rooted AK Party is on trial on charges of trying to introduce Islamic rule in Turkey, a predominantly Muslim but officially secular state. A chief prosecutor also wants to bar Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan, President Abdullah Gul and 69 leading AK Party figures from party membership for five years on charges of seeking to introduce Islamic sharia law in Turkey. "We will begin the discussions on Monday. Will it take three days, five days or 10 days? That we don't know," Constitutional Court Chairman Hasim Kilic told reporters on leaving the court. Traditionally the court's 11 judges have moved swiftly to rule on high-profile cases, usually within the same day. If the AK Party is closed and Erdogan -- seen as key to the survival of a reformist political movement he helped create in 2001 -- removed from power, analysts expect an early parliamentary election will follow. Political analysts and senior AK Party sources have long believed the governing party would be shut down and have viewed the court case as politically-driven, but in the past week have become more cautious and now say it might not be closed. A closure case comes amid a separate potentially explosive case involving what a prosecutor says is a shadowy, ultra-nationalist group suspected of seeking to overthrown the government by launching a series of violent actions that would force the army to step in. More than 80 people, including two senior retired army generals have been arrested in the expanding investigation. The 11 judges -- most of them known for their strict interpretation of Turkey's constitution -- will vote and seven votes in favour are needed to shut down the ruling party. More than 20 parties have been banned for Islamist or Kurdish separatist activities in the past few decades, but none has had as much popular support as Erdogan's AK Party. "This is not a regular closure case and this is not a trivial party but one in power that won a landslide re-election last year," Dogu Ergil, an expert on Turkish politics. "The court has responsibilities, there are divisions among the judges and shifting opinions. Any verdict is possible." |
| Posted by:Steve White |