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Turkey Crisis Over, For Now

Council on Foreign Relations

Interviewee:
Steven A. Cook, Senior Fellow for Middle Eastern Studies
Interviewer:
Bernard Gwertzman, Consulting Editor

July 30, 2008

In July 30, Turkey's Constitutional Court decided not to ban the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP). Critics of the party had claimed that a move to abolish a ban on headscarves at Turkish universities violated the country's secularist constitution. Steven A. Cook, CFR's leading expert on Turkey, says that the narrow decision marks a reprieve for Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's government. Cook adds, however, that the case sends a clear warning to the party. If the party regards the Court's decision as a victory, Cook says, Turkey may find itself "back in the same place sometime in the not so distant future."

Turkey's ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) was under threat of being banned for anti-secular activities, but the Constitutional Court has just ruled narrowly not to ban the party, but only to deprive it of state financing. Can you explain what happened?

Very briefly, what's happened is the state prosecutor, Abdurrahman Yalcinkaya, petitioned the Constitutional Court to close the ruling Justice and Development Party on the basis that the Justice and Development Party was a center of anti-secular activity. The Turkish Republic is officially a secular republic and any expression of religion in the public sphere is something that is vigorously resisted by a variety of state agencies including the state prosecutor and the military.

The Court actually voted against the Justice and Development Party, 6 to 5, but a seven-vote majority was needed to actually ban the party. The chief judge said the party would be deprived of its state financing for a year, and said this was a "serious warning" to the party. What does all this mean?

This is a great question.

Read the rest of this article on the cfr.org website.

Copyright 2008 by the Council on Foreign Relations. This material is republished on GlobalSecurity.org with specific permission from the cfr.org. Reprint and republication queries for this article should be directed to cfr.org.