Turkey’s Constitutional Court will consider on Monday whether to accept a case aimed at closing down the ruling party for Islamist activities.
The petition by a prosecutor has divided Turkey, increased uncertainty in financial markets and could undermine Ankara’s bid to join the European Union.
This month a chief prosecutor asked the court to shut the AK Party, which has Islamist roots, for trying to create an Islamic state in secular Turkey. He also wants 71 party officials, including the prime minister and president, banned from politics for five years.
The AK Party, which won re-election last year, denies the charges and says the case is an attack on democracy.
The party’s recent move to allow Muslim headscarves to be worn in universities has angered the powerful secularist establishment which includes the army as well as the courts.
“We won 47 per cent of the vote … Everyone must respect the nation’s will,” Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan told supporters on Sunday, his voice almost hoarse after a weekend of speech-making. “We will continue our struggle within democracy.”
The Constitutional Court first has to decide whether to take on the case, which risks creating a prolonged period of uncertainty in Turkey and could distract the generally pro-business AK Party from reforms.
The case could also have implications for Ankara’s European Union bid. EU Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn said on Saturday the case revealed a systemic error in the constitutional framework and could jeopardise entry talks.
The head of the Constitutional Court had said judges expected to start looking at the case on Monday. It is not clear when the court will announce a decision on whether to pursue the case, which could take as long as six months.
Ahead of the judges’ deliberations, a court rapporteur laid out arguments for and against accepting the case in anon-binding report presented last week.
The AK Party has said it may seek to change the constitution to make closing down parties more difficult.
But that raises more uncertainty – if the AK Party does not bring other parties on board to pass the reform, it will have to put it to a national referendum which some politicians and analysts regard as a source of further instability.