Posted on 07/01/2008 4:40:29 PM PDT by mojito
Turkey’s highest court was told today that the country’s governing party should be disbanded for alleged Islamist activities. The President and Prime Minister are accused of breaching strict rules ensuring that political parties remain secular.
The case being heard today is the latest in a series of battles between the Justice and Development Party (AK), which has Islamic roots, and secularists who dominate the courts, the Army and the bureaucracy.
Abdurrahman Yalcinkaya, chief prosecutor of the Court of Appeal, arrived at the court through a back door this morning and made a 90-minute presentation to the panel of 11 judges before going into closed session. “The secular Republic is facing an unprecedented danger because the counterrevolutionary forces are no longer in the margins, but in government,” Mr Yalcinkaya said.
The AK legal team will offer its defence of the party on Thursday. After the hearings, a court-appointed rapporteur will submit a non-binding opinion. The court will then set a date to debate the case and come to a verdict, also in camera.
Many political analysts expect the party to be outlawed and some members, including Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the Prime Minister, to be banned from belonging to a party for five years. AK representatives suggest that a ruling is unlikely before next month.
The indictment against AK rests heavily on government proposals to allow women to wear the Muslim headscarf at university. In a separate ruling the Government’s proposals were scrapped by the courts, leaving AK party members fearing the worst from the latest hearing.
(Excerpt) Read more at timesonline.co.uk ...
“Political tensions rose Tuesday across Turkey as police seized two retired generals, a prominent journalist and others accused of plotting to overthrow the government and prosecutors undertook a court case to ban the Islamic-rooted ruling party.
The developments dramatize the sharp and serious political tensions between the country's Islamic-rooted ruling party — the Justice and Development Party, or AKP — and its outspoken critics from the nation's secularist establishment.
Since autumn, police have been arresting and jailing people accused of being part of Ergenekon, an alleged plot to overthrow the government. During the effort, there has been harassment of journalists, and news reports have said many people are being held without charge.
On Tuesday, police made 22 arrests in Ankara, Istanbul, Antalya and Trabzon, according to Turkey's semi-official Anadolu Agency, which said its information came from prosecutors. Three other people were being sought, the agency said.
Those seized include former generals Hursit Tolon and Sener Eruygur; Mustafa Balbay of the Cumhuriyet newspaper; Sinan Aygun, leader of the Ankara Trade Organization; and Ecument Ovali, a college professor. The newspaper said police conducted a search at its Ankara headquarters.”
http://edition.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/asiapcf/07/01/turkey.arrests/?iref=hpmostpop
Disclaimer:
This AK has nothing to do with Alaska
The Turkish sheeple voted for islam. No AtaTurk to save them.
There, now it applies to us! Oops, forgot the federal courts.
"I can say on behalf of everyone at National Review, including the editor in chief, we cannot be guilty of anything else but loving our country very much and protecting its rights. They cannot find anything else against us."
Oops.. darn remote viewing -- sometimes I wished I hadn't bought that book, "Remote Viewing for Dummies." It's hard to tell the now from the future sometimes.
It's still 2008.
"[There's a] widely shared impression in Turkey that the operation is part of the power struggle between the AKP and the hard-line secularists, most notably the military," he said.
The Turks I worked with for a few years both here and in Ankara were highly educated and very bright, terrific people and definitely not Islamists and not Kemalists. In between like most Turks, I figure.
IMO, the Turkish army has waited too long. God willing, these arrests will prod them into action and they will right the country. Some people are not fit for democracy.
The Turkish imam I worked with here in DC was also a strong supporter of the separation of mosque and state. I think the fascism of the radical Muslims made him very nervous.
Very interesting post & thread. Thanks to all contributors.
The Turkish people voted for a strong economy, which thanks to the support of a Moderate Islam vs Democracy hypothesis proof attempt oriented USA government these fundamentalists had been able to deliver for about 6 years. Yes your government has not one week ago voiced her opinion AGAINST impeachment of these shariah minded ignorants. Your most recent government has srewed up the war on terror and only strengthened the CEOs, CFOs, and COOs of terror, inc. Our reward? political uncertainty. Your reward? Obama. Send Bush a thank you card.
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