Headscarf case closely tied to fate of AK Party

Turkish court set to rule on controversial law today

Women watch a model presenting a creation by a Turkish designer during a street fashion show in Istanbul, Turkey, late Tuesday. The country’s top court will meet today and could issue a decision on whether to cancel a law allowing Islamic headscarves in universities in Turkey.

ISTANBUL (Reuters) – The survival of Turkey’s ruling party and its prime minister could depend on the outcome of court deliberations starting today on whether students should be allowed to wear Muslim headscarves at university.

Turkey’s Constitutional Court agreed in March to take up a case brought by the Court of Appeals chief prosecutor, who seeks the closure of the Justice and Development Party (AKP) and the banning of 71 members for allegedly breaking the strict rules of the secular state.

Before that controversial case begins, the same court will start considering whether to reject a constitutional amendment passed by parliament in February that allows female students to wear the Islamic headscarf on campus.

“If the court upholds the appeal by the opposition CHP it will strengthen the prosecutor’s case against the ruling party to shut it down,” said Semih Idiz, a leading Turkish columnist.

“The prosecutor’s case rests heavily on the headscarf issue.” The verdict on the headscarf amendment, which sparked the case to close the AKP, could come as early as today.

The party denies the charges of alleged Islamist activities, which it regards as a bid by arch-conservative opponents to dislodge a government with a huge parliamentary majority. The AKP says the right to wear the headscarf at university is a personal and religious freedom but they have remained quiet on the issue since the closure case was opened.

“I have the feeling the old elite and representatives in the higher judiciary are pretty clear about their intentions regarding the closure case. I think they will go for closure,” Cengiz Aktar, a political scientist at Istanbul’s Bahcesehir University, said. “I don’t think the headscarf case matters.”

The closure case also aims to ban Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and President Abdullah Gul from belonging to a political party for five years.

A senior AKP member, who declined to be named, recently told Reuters that a favorable ruling in the headscarf case might not necessarily mean the party would avert closure.

“The reason the court could rule against the CHP is that the constitutional amendment does not specifically mention the headscarf but rather focuses on the right to education,” the source said.

The court may issue a note making clear the amendment could not be a basis for wearing the headscarf, the source said.

If the AKP is outlawed its members in parliament are expected to form a new political party.

“There are significant hurdles that the new party would have to face, including the risk of a new lawsuit on charges that it represents a continuation of the AKP,” Wolfango Piccoli, analyst at Eurasia Group, wrote in a note. “Similarly, Erdogan’s expected attempt to regain the position of prime minister by running for parliament as an independent candidate in a special election is unlikely to be as smooth as the market consensus envisions.”