A state prosecutor on Friday filed a motion with the Constitutional Court, the highest court in the country, seeking to close the party due to alleged anti-secular activities. The prosecutor who filed the case, Supreme Court of Appeals Chief Prosecutor Abdurrahman Yalçınkaya, also demanded that 71 party members, including Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and President Abdullah Gül (who served as foreign minister in the previous AK Party Cabinet), be banned from politics for five years.
The AK Party, at a press conference held on short notice on Friday night, called the suit “an attack on Turkish democracy and the Turkish people.” Deputy Chairman of the AK Party Dengir Mir Mehmet Fırat termed it “the worst injustice against our country’s interests, peace and stability as well as its reputation in the world.”
The indictment has raised the prospect of prolonged political turmoil in Turkey and has rattled financial markets already badly jolted by the global credit crunch and fears of a deep recession in the United States.
The Constitutional Court is now in the process of naming a rapporteur for the case. The first investigation will not take more than 10 days, Osman Paksüt, deputy chief justice and spokesman for the court, told reporters yesterday. He also advised reporters not to wait in front of the court expecting a major story to emerge every hour.
According to Paksüt, the first investigation will establish whether the dossier is correctly formatted so that the Constitutional Court can examine its contents. When the court has agreed to examine the case, it will have to determine whether the accusations themselves are sufficiently serious and plausible to be investigated. If it does, the AK Party will then have to provide arguments in its own defense.
A final verdict could take many months.
Erdoğan, who was barred from politics once before for reciting a poem deemed too Islamist by Turkish authorities, has vowed to fight the lawsuit, calling it an attack upon democracy.
Supreme Court of Appeals responds
A myriad of protests and statements of condemnation have been made by politicians, civil society groups, foreign diplomats and academics in Turkey since the prosecutor filed his case against the governing party on Friday. Supreme Court of Appeals’ President Hasan Gerçeker told critics in a statement made on Monday “not to push the boundaries of criticism too hard.”
In the written statement, released in the afternoon, he said, “The evaluation and the final decision on this issue lie with the Constitution Court.”
“The boundaries of criticism should not be pushed too far, and making or writing comments, articles and news that fall slightly short of insult should be avoided. The duty of the media is to inform the society without crossing legal or ethical boundaries. We believe the Turkish press will show the utmost care in this issue.”
Turkish newspapers have speculated that the AK Party, which has presided over strong economic growth and political reforms since taking power in 2002, could ask opposition parties to help push through constitutional changes to thwart the prosecutors.
A serious allegation against the prosecutor came yesterday from Culture and Tourism Minister Erturğrul Günay, who said in remarks to news channel NTV that the case was launched with the purpose of covering up an incident known to the public as Ergenekon -- a gang suspected of serious crimes, including the assassination of ethnic Armenian journalist Hrant Dink, in hopes of creating chaos and preparing the groundwork in Turkey for a military takeover. Ergenekon’s plans were unearthed in a police operation a few months ago. Noting that the investigation into the gang members was ongoing, Günay said: “Things were forced to develop in such a way that I think that perhaps Mr. Chief Prosecutor was led to act in this way. True, the people always make the ultimate decision on every particular subject, but there is a milieu that they are part of that leads to a particular decision.”
Meanwhile, the Monday edition of daily Taraf asked its readers to file complaints against Yalçınkaya for “abusing his authority.” In a sample petition the daily argued that the evidence in the indictment was entirely unsubstantiated, given that some of the accusations were based on cases already dealt with at different courts.
A coup d’état from neo-nationalists
Ahmet Gündül, a retired Supreme Court of Appeals prosecutor, shared his opinions on Yalçınkaya’s indictment with the press yesterday, saying it was “thought provoking” that such charges were being pressed against the AK Party for no apparent reason. He said he believed the primary purpose was to wear the government out and damage Turkey’s European Union process. “Backstage, behind this case, there are segments calling themselves neo-nationalists. This [case] is a neo-nationalist attempt to overthrow the government.”
He said it was wrong to interpret the case’s repercussions in “legal” terms alone, underlining that the case was mostly political. “Everyone who believes in democracy, whether they voted for the AK Party or not, should show their reaction in the strongest way.”
Members of judiciary, politicians continue to protest
Legal professionals continue to protest the attempt to prosecute the AK Party over alleged anti-secular activities. Ayhan Çabuk, head of the Van Bar Association, said yesterday that the Constitutional Court had to reject the indictment because it sought to try the president, who under Turkish law can only be tried on charges of treason. Çabuk also said that the evidence presented by the prosecutor was not nearly sufficient to close a party down.
The Republican People’s Party (CHP) has not as a party openly protested the attempt to shut down the AK Party. Its leader has not commented so far, while one of its deputy chairmen, Hakkı Süha Okay, said: “We wouldn’t like for a party to be shut down. But some parties are taking their revenge on the revolution of enlightenment,” referring to the introduction of Turkey’s secular system.
CHP Deputy Chairman Mustafa Özyürek said in response to Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) leader Devlet Bahçeli’s proposal to act quickly and change the Constitution to protect political parties from closure that “there is currently an ongoing judicial process that was launched in accordance with the current law.” He said trying to change the current rules of the game would not be right in a state where the rule of law prevailed.
News reports announced yesterday, however, that CHP leader Deniz Baykal would speak on the issue for the first time on private news channel Star TV Monday night in an interview with news anchor Uğur Dündar.
Head of the Grand Unity Party (BBP) Muhsin Yazıcıoğlu said in a statement made to the press on the closure case on Monday that the Constitutional Court should reject the indictment from the outset.
Businessmen’s associations from across the country continued to issue statements condemning Yalçınkaya’s indictment. Southeastern Young Businessmen’s Association head Abdülkadir Akboz said, “We don’t think that an attempt to shut down a party in a country that calls itself a democracy is right.”
Batman Chamber of Commerce head Mehmet Teymur remarked that the case was “very unfortunate,” adding: “Nobody would have expected this. Everybody is pleased with the government. Stability has been established, the economy is on a good track. It is not right to close down a party in a democracy.”
Erzurum Chamber of Trade and Commerce Chairman Muammer Cindilli said, “You won’t be doing something right if you are repeating an earlier mistake knowing that you will get the exact same results as before.” The Van Chamber of Trade and Commerce, the Diyarbakır Entrepreneurs and Businessmen’s Association (DİGİAD), the Diyarbakır branch of the Legal Research Center (HUDER), the Diyarbakır Bar Association and academics from Dicle University also released statements in condemnation of what they viewed as an anti-democratic attempt to shut down the governing party.
In Elazığ province, Anatolia Alevi Bektashi Culture Promotion Association President Ali Çoban said the case aimed to harm peace in the country. Saying that the AK Party was elected by the people, Çoban asserted that to ensure a bright future for Turkey, the party should not be closed down. “I believe that Turkey will eventually overcome all of these [obstacles] and that bright days will arrive,” Çoban said.
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