Highlights
– Constitutional Court is ruling against AKP
– AKP is fighting for its political survival
– The Islamist-Secular divide in Turkey is wider than ever
Secularist Suspicions
The Turkish government is in crisis. Last week, the Constitutional Court ruled that an amendment championed by the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) in the Turkish Parliament lifting the ban against the wearing of headscarves in universities violates Turkey’s secular principles. Turkey has had a long-standing ban against the wearing of headscarves in public institutions. To the secularist guardians of Turkey, religious dress such as the headscarf is considered oppressive and an affront to the separation of religion and the state.
The separation of religion and state has been a founding and unwavering principle of the republic for almost a century. In February 2008, AKP successfully (or so they believed) ushered in an amendment rescinding the headscarf ban in universities (Previous Report). They claimed that this move had nothing to do with religion, but was about granting women the personal choice to wear the headscarf in a university setting. They strongly believed that religious women were being denied the right to an education because of their religious choice, and therefore they should not be restricted in their dress.
Previous attempts to reverse the headscarf ban failed both politically and in the judicial system. However, at this juncture in Turkish history, AKP retained the voting majority in Parliament to make removing the ban a reality, also believing that they had the support of the public. But the party seriously underestimated the reaction and anger over this amendment by the secular establishment embodied in the Turkish courts, military, and universities and private citizens.
Court Rulings
The secularist’s establishment viewed the headscarf ban as the start of AKP’s insidious agenda to introduce Islam into state affairs. It is likely that AKP’s drive to rescind the headscarf ban instigated secularist fears and led to a Turkish Prosecutor initiating a case against AKP to close the party and ban certain members for promoting and conducting anti-secular activities. The Turkish courts have agreed to hear the case and it is possible AKP could be disbanded. The court’s ruling on the headscarf issue is a major victory for the secularist establishment in Turkey and a significant blow to AKP. AKP is now in crisis talks over the courts ruling. The Deputy Chairman of AKP has lashed out at the court claiming that it is the court that has overstepped its bounds as it is only allowed to examine laws, not rule on their contents. Several hundred protestors marched in various cities around Turkey against the court’s ruling.
The Unraveling of AKP
After years of government instability and a major financial crisis, AKP came to power in 2002 as a party of change and is credited for both stabilization and reform in Turkey. However, secularists are fearful that AKP wants to introduce an Islamist agenda into the mechanisms of the Turkish state, a charge that AKP continually denies. Although it is an Islamist party, AKP believes that observant politicians can separate religion and politics. Only one year ago, it seemed that the ruling Justice and Development Party had reaffirmed their legitimacy and hold on power by winning hastily called General Elections with an impressive 47 percent of the vote, thus solidifying their majority in Parliament. The elections were called after an attempt by AKP to appoint the new Turkish President, Abdullah Gul who also happened to be an AKP member. Since AKP members had already acquired the position of Prime Minster and Speaker of the Parliament, the opposition and Turkish secularists were alarmed that AKP’s possession of three major leadership positions in the Turkish government would give the party too much power. Since this time, however, AKP has been under siege by worried secularists, and it looks like AKP’s firm grip on power may be slipping.
Outlook
The Islamist-secularist divide in Turkey has reached a boiling point. The aforementioned court cases are symbols of this inherent tension in Turkish society over religion and strict secularism. This is leading to a great deal of uncertainty in Turkey regarding the stability of the government (Previous Report). It may be possible that AKP’s leadership of Turkey is soon to be over, as the court’s ruling against the headscarf amendment is a harbinger of the final outcome in the AKP closure case.
