Cyprus-Forum.com

[boomerang]

Turkey's top prosecutor demands closure of the governing AKP

Turkey's chief prosecutor, Abdurrahman Yalcinkaya, has filed a lawsuit to the Constitutional Court requesting the closure of ruling party AKP on Friday. The prosecutor accused AKP of being the center of anti-secular activities. the prosecutor also requested AKP officials', including Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan and President Abdullah Gul, ban from politics. Analysts warn the case likely to increase the political uncertainity in the mid-term. (UPDATED)


Yalcinkaya accused AKP of "being (the) focal point of anti-secular activities", the official Anatolian Agency reported. Turkish TV agencies said the prosecutor also requested AKP officials', including Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan and President Abdullah Gul, ban from politics.

AKP officials held an emergency meeting with legal advisers to discuss the court, while supporters of the party started to gather in front of the party's headquarter in Ankara, hurriyet.com.tr reported.

The Constitutional Court decided to close the Welfare Party, the party that the Islamist AKP has its roots, in 1997 for being the center of anti-secular activities.

"Everybody should think thoroughly what such a case against a ruling party which has overwhelming majority in the parliament, would bring (to Turkey) or take away from Turkey" Gul was quoted as saying by NTV television. When the reporters asked whether there is a similarity between the cases against AKP and the Welfare Party, Gul replied "Absolutely no", NTV reported.

http://www.hurriyet.com.tr/english/turkey/8460559.asp?gid=231&sz=54350

Turkish PM attacks proposed ban

Mr Erdogan's party has been under investigation for six months
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has criticised a proposal to ban his ruling AK Party as being against the "national will".
He was speaking after Turkey's chief prosecutor asked the country's Constitutional Court to ban the party, accusing it of anti-secular activities.

Turkey's secularist constitution does not allow any religious influence on the operation of the state.

The AK Party, which has Islamist roots, won last year's general elections.

In announcing his indictment, prosecutor Abdurrahman Yalcinkaya said he believed there was enough evidence to show the party had contravened Turkey's secular constitution.

He also revealed the party had been under investigation for six months.

EU warning

"The action taken yesterday is not aimed at the Justice and Development Party [AKP] but the will of the nation," Mr Erdogan said.

"No one can say that [AKP supporters] are a focal point of anti-secular activities," he added.

The proposed ban prompted a warning from European Union Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn, suggesting it was not in line with the democratic standards expected of would-be member states.

"In a normal European democracy, political issues are debated in the parliament and decided through the ballot box, not in the court rooms," Mr Rehn told reporters in Brussels.

"The executive shouldn't meddle into the court's work, while the legal system shouldn't meddle into democratic politics," he said.

Turkey is currently implementing reforms as part of its bid to join the EU.

Headscarf controversy


The AKP is already locked in a battle with Turkey's secular elite, backed by the powerful military, over recent changes to a ban on wearing headscarves.

The Constitutional Court is reviewing an appeal by the main pro-secular opposition party on the validity of parliament's constitutional amendments in February to allow women to wear Islamic headscarves at universities.

The AKP has argued that the headscarf ban unfairly bars large numbers of girls from higher education in a nation where about 66% of women wear the scarf.

Many secularists in the country equate the wearing of the headscarf with political Islam.

The AKP has its roots in a banned Islamist party.

But the government of Prime Minister Erdogan - which is negotiating for Turkey to join the EU - has insisted that the party's political views have changed.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/7298291.stm

Another example of the farce in "turkey=fascist state" joining the EU...as soon as the army gets involved it will be a three way circus...

This is the country that wants to meddle in the RoC affairs and sending letters out to EU members about solutions...

Go figure

[Nikitas]

I heard this late night on BBC and could not believe it. Sounds screwy. Is it possible to declare the party illegal and yet still allow it to retain its parliamentary seats? What if it reforms under another name and charter and wins elections again? It really does look like a farce. The prosecutor will most likely be fired and taht will be the end of it.

[Tim Drayton]

I heard this late night on BBC and could not believe it. Sounds screwy. Is it possible to declare the party illegal and yet still allow it to retain its parliamentary seats? What if it reforms under another name and charter and wins elections again? It really does look like a farce. The prosecutor will most likely be fired and taht will be the end of it.

This has kept on happening with the main Islamist party in Turkey anyway. It is closed down and then it sets up under another name. So the Selamet Party became the Refah Party and then the Fazilet Party, which split into the Saadet Party and the AKP.

The significant point is that the prosecutor is calling for Prime-Minister Erdoğan and President Gül to be barred from participating in politics for five years, which would seriously harm the electoral prospects of any new party that may be formed.

The prosecutor will not be fired. There is a huge battle for power going in Turkey between the traditional ruling elite (which supports secularism) and a new nascent elite which has risen on the back of industrialisation in more traditional parts of central Anatolia (and which seems to be attempting to create a synthesis between secular Kemalism and Islamism). The prosecutor is clearly not acting on his own initiative but has the support of the former group; this is just the latest round in the old ruling class's attempt to maintain its hegemony.

We could well see a new period of instability in Turkey. This will have ramifications for Cyprus. In my view, the old Kemalist elite takes a more hardline stance and favours partition of the island, while the groups organised around the AKP which are challenging the hegemony of the old ruling class appear more ready to contemplate fresh ideas about Cyprus.

[Bananiot]

Agree Tim, hope Erdogan rides this storm too, for the sake of Cyprus.

[Kikapu]

Agree Tim, hope Erdogan rides this storm too, for the sake of Cyprus.

Not with this kind of attitude from Erdogan, Bananiot. Anyway, he will be more concerned saving his own neck now than the "TRNC's".

Erdogan letter to EU 26

TURKISH Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has sent a letter to 26 EU leaders stating that the Annan plan is the basis for future negotiations for the solution of the Cyprus problem.
Cyprus did not get one.

Erdogan’s Greek counterpart Costas Karamanlis, responding to the development yesterday, said the Annan plan had been rejected by the overwhelming majority of Greek Cypriots and no longer constituted a basis for negotiations.

The Greek Prime Minister referred to a recent statement made by Erdogan during Karamanlis’ visit in Ankara, in which he said that the Annan plan was not a basis for discussion.

“I want to reiterate that Turkey’s EU course depends on certain criteria and preconditions which have been expressed with clarity in EU decisions,” he concluded.



Copyright © Cyprus Mail 2008

[boomerang]

AKP plans to amend constitution to prevent closure

AKP is mulling to amend the constitution in order to prevent the party's closure, sources told Hurriyet on Sunday. "We are going to start legal preparations next week. We have (the majority) in the parliament", an AKP official who's close to Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan was quoted as saying by Hurriyet.


According to the report, a high-level meeting was held in Erdogan's office after the top prosecutor filed a lawsuit against AKP demanding its closure. Deputy Prime Minister Cemil Cicek, Tourism Minister Ertugrul Gunay and Labor Minister Faruk Celik attended the meeting alongside with legal advisers of the party, Hurriyet reported.



In the meeting the officials discussed two possibilities including calling an early elections and amending the constitution to make the party closings harder, Hurriyet said. At the end officials decided to prepare a package of constitutional amendments instead of calling an early election. Erdogan is likely to press for taking the package to referendum, Hurriyet said.



According to the report the package is expected to include removing the ban of the officials of the closed party from politics. Also a new clause is expected to be added the constitution saying "the party should pose a constant and serious threat" in order to be determined as the focal point of anti-secular acts.

http://www.hurriyet.com.tr/english/turkey/8471474.asp?gid=231&sz=19490

I think he neck would be saved, but this could be a warning not to press too hard on the headscarf, by the constitutional court...

Pearsonally I think Erdogan will gain in popularity out of this one....People are benefitting during his tenure in government...

[umit07]

I reckon the constitutional court will rule in favour of Erdogan, since he even managed to get a pro-AKP judge to head the court ( the current head on the court has no legal knowledge anyway, the guy is a bloody accountant!!! ) .

[Bananiot]

Erdogan will rise in strength if he pulls through this one. Regarding the Annan plan, it is no surprise that Erdogan presses the point home so hard. After all it was the Turkish side that said "yes" and Turkey was much acclaimed by the international community for its stance then. Yet, even hard liner Papadopoulos has been quoted stating that plans such as the Annan Plan can never be swept off the negotiation table. From his point of view Erdogan is playing the tactical game extremely well.

[Oracle]

We have had countless flavours of Turks since 1974 ... and frankly I do not think it matters who is in power in Turkey ...

It is the more powerful outside committees (US / EU) that will deal the final blow to Turkey's presence in Cyprus ... and not who is in power in Turkey at any one time ....

[Bananiot]

Yeap, like the blow they dealt in Kosovo. I think the big powers spoiled us, for they came to our aid on countless occasions to prevent our disintegration.