Turkey's constitutional court convenes Tuesday for final deliberations on a probable ban on the pro-Islamic Virtue Party (VP), a ruling that could have serious repercussions for the already beleaguered government, reported AFP.
The 11-member panel of judges is expected to begin the discussions at 0700 GMT and pursue them without a break until they reach a final decision, which observers say is likely to come within ten days.
But the Turkish Daily News said that the verdict in the case would be issued Tuesday.
It said the verdict “will reshape Turkish politics,” and is significant in that it will force the existing and coalescing political parties to map out new strategies. Analysts cited by the agency predicted that a ban on the The VP, the main opposition party, was the most likely outcome of the case, which was launched in May 1999 by the country's former chief prosecutor, Vural Savas.
In his indictment, Savas likened the party to a "vampire" feeding off the public's religious feelings and charged that it was an illegal continuation of the now-defunct Welfare Party of former prime minister Necmettin Erbakan.
The VP also stands accused of inciting protests against a headscarf ban in universities and orchestrating a failed bid by one of its MPs in 1999 to take an oath in parliament wearing a headscarf.
Savas demanded that the party be outlawed for anti-secular activities, its leadership be barred from politics for five years and all of its 102 MPs in the 550-seat parliament be removed from office, said AFP.
But if the constitutional court agrees to remove all of the party's MPs, Turkey will face a broad by-election for the vacant seats or even a general election.
According to AFP, early elections could spell the end of Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit's three-party coalition -- Turkey's most stable government since 1995 -- at a time when it is battling a severe economic crisis and striving to achieve its decades-long ambition of European Union membership.
A government change is likely to impede Ankara's program of vigorous economic reforms, backed by a multi billion-dollar loan from the International Monetary Fund, and push the country into further troubles.
In a newspaper interview in February, Ecevit said the VP's chances of emerging unscathed from the case were slim and expressed concern over the grave consequences of a ban.
"Such a development would draw Turkey into uncertainty," Ecevit said.
But the constitutional court has a second option: in a supplementary indictment issued in February, the new chief prosecutor Sabih Kanadoglu demanded that only two Virtue MPs be removed from office.
According to the Englis daily, he called for only two deputies, Ismail Alptekin and Mehmet Ozyol, to have their parliamentarian status revoked. The constitutional court is going to rule on whether the party should be dissolved or not, and if so, how many of its deputies will lose their offices.
If the judges deem Kanadoglu's demand the more appropriate of the two, the threat of elections will be over, said AFP.
The Virtue Party, meanwhile, has kept its hopes high since the beginning of the case that it will not be wiped off from the political scene.
"We believe that we will not be outlawed. We are awaiting the start of the court's deliberations with an easy heart," Virtue leader Recai Kutan was quoted by the agency as telling reporters Monday.
A ban will also tarnish Turkey's image as an EU candidate and deliver a blow to moves to expand liberties and improve democracy in a country which often comes under fire from its Western allies for its bleak rights record, said AFP.
The case is also under scrutiny from by the European Union, which granted Turkey membership candidate status in 1999.
But such a ruling will not mean an end to Virtue's mission of introducing Islam into mainstream politics, as all pro-Islamic parties previously banned by the constitutional court were followed by new formations.
Virtue is highly likely to follow the same path.
"Whatever the verdict may be, we will continue on our path," the party's deputy group chairman, Bulent Arinc, said Monday.
Virtue itself is the successor of Welfare, banned by the constitutional court in 1998 for anti-secular activities. The move came months after Turkey's first Islamist prime minister resigned as a result of an anti-Islamist campaign led by Turkey's military, a staunch defender of secularism -- Albawaba.com
© 2001 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
