Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan's AK Party is furious because the Constitutional Court has decided to reinstate the ban on headscarves at Turkish universities. Rarely have the Turkish government and judiciary been so much at loggerheads. Is there any way out of the crisis?
MK Party MPs cheered as Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan attacked the Turkish Constitutional Court in a speech on Tuesday. In February, MPs voted to abolish the ban on headscarves at Turkish universities, but last week the Constitutional Court revoked the decision.
The religious headscarf is again outlawed on campus. And like many others in his party, Mr Erdogan is furious. In his speech to parliament he asserted,
"The constitution clearly says that legislative power belongs solely to elected parliaments" - not, therefore, to the Constitutional Court. "No one can take away the power the constitution grants to the respected parliament."
Tensions
Mr Erdogan's speech is indicative of the degree of political tension in Turkey. The secular camp (the CHP Party, the army and the judiciary) bitterly complains that Mr Erdogan and his supporters are striking at the roots of the secular system in Turkey.
 |
If a law student is allowed to wear a headscarf as an undergraduate, will she then take it off if she becomes a lawyer or a judge? Mr Erdogan and his supporters take a very different view.
They say it's up to each woman individually whether she chooses to wear a headscarf, and the state shouldn't interfere. Parliament voted to allow the wearing of headscarves on campus, says the AK Party, so why should the judiciary assume the role of legislator and revoke the decision?
Grey area
Of course in Turkey there is a considerable grey area between religious and secular. There are Turks who describe themselves as religious but nevertheless openly drink alcohol. There are also Turks who see themselves as being more secular, but who have no major objections to the wearing of headscarves at universities.
But all the millions of Turks in this grey area appear incapable of bringing about a dialogue between the politicians and the judiciary. The battle between the AK Party on the one hand and the strictly secular camp on the other will dominate Turkey this summer. The vast majority of Turkish lawyers are convinced that the Constitutional Court will ban the AK Party.
The prosecutor bringing the case against Mr Erdogan and his supporters claims the party has become a hotbed of anti-secular activity. The parliamentary vote to allow headscarves on campus figures prominently in the case against the AK. The move is anti-secular, says the public prosecutor, and with its decision on Thursday the Constitutional Court agreed.
Power struggle
How has Turkey managed to arrive at such a situation? It's a question that's bound to occupy the minds of generations of Turkish historians. There are many who say that after last year's elections the AK party lost sight of Turkish reality.
The party received more than 40 percent of the vote, and many in the AK thought the secular camp had been defeated once and for all. But at the same time, it became clearer than ever to the secular camp that the battle against the AK could no longer be won via the ballot box. This paved the way for legal proceedings against the AK.
No one knows what will happen if the AK is actually outlawed. Will Mr Erdogan be banned from participating in politics, and if so, will there be a successor? Will the economy collapse? Will the European Union put Turkey's accession on the back burner?
One thing is certain: Turkey is in the grip of a power struggle between two camps whose opinions differ on more or less everything and who are apparently prepared to fight it out to the bitter end. The people of Turkey know this, and many are concerned. It's clear that Turkey can expect a political heat wave this summer.
RNW translation (mb)
Tags: AK Party, European Union , Tayyip Erdogan, Turkey