Top of the Agenda: Turkey Court Ruling

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

– Turkey’s top court to rule on AKP; suicide bombs in Istanbul.
– Bombings at Iraqi Shiite pilgrimage; separate attack in Kirkuk.
– Philippines strikes deal with rebel group.
– Pakistani PM in Washington for talks.
    
Top of the Agenda: Turkey Court Ruling

Turkey’s top court today begins deliberations on whether to shut down the country’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), in a decision with major implications for a country that has long sought to balance a secularist constitution and majority Muslim population. The court is considering whether the AKP’s decision to lift a ban on headscarves at universities constitutes a violation of Turkey’s constitution, and thus is grounds for banning the party (al-Jazeera).

Turkey’s Hurriyet says the political conflict has wrought financial turmoil and has thrust Turkey into a new period of political instability. A day before the court deliberations, two bombings in Istanbul (Turkish Daily News) killed sixteen and injured at least 150 others in a crowded shopping area.

Experts have warned Turkey’s secularists, whose power is felt most strongly among the country’s military elite, against trying to shut down the AKP, saying such a move could wind up isolating Turkey and could prove an obstacle to EU accession (Today’s Zaman). CFR’s Steven A. Cook, in an essay published on bitterlemons-international.org, says the events in Turkey represent a radicalization of the national dialogue between secularists and moderates.

Background:

– A Foreign Affairs article from November 2007 takes an in-depth look at the roots of Turkey’s constitutional conflict and says the dispute has “exposed the illiberal nature of Turkish secularism.”