Turk court rejection of headscarf bill deals blow to gov’t

Verdict states violation of secular principles

Turkish President Abdullah Gul (left) and his wife Hayrunnisa are escorted by Japanese Empress Michiko (center) and Emperor Akihito (right) at the Imperial Palace in Tokyo yesterday. Gul is on a five-day official visit to Japan.

ANKARA (AP) – Turkey’s top court ruled yesterday that Islamic headscarves cannot be allowed at university because that would violate secularism.

The decision is a defeat for Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s Islamic-oriented government, which tried to allow the scarves at universities as a matter of personal and religious freedom.

But the Constitutional Court verdict issued yesterday said constitutional amendments that were passed by the parliament in February violated secular principles.

The headscarf issue is an explosive one for Turkey, where the government is locked in a power struggle with secular groups that have support from the military and other state institutions. The verdict is likely to bode ill for the government.

Turkey’s chief prosecutor is seeking to disband the ruling party because it is “the focal point of anti-secular activities” in a separate case at the Constitutional Court. He has cited attempts to allow headscarves at universities as a case in point.

Many see the headscarf as an emblem of political Islam, and consider any attempt to allow it in schools as an attack against modern Turkey’s secular laws.

There was no immediate comment from the government on the ruling. Deputy Prime Minister Cemil Cicek said the government would like to see the court’s reasoning before saying anything.

A brief statement from the court said the amendments were annulled because they were in violation of some articles of the constitution, including one that states that “The Turkish Republic is a secular state” and another that says that altering the secular nature of the state “cannot even be proposed.” Onur Oymen, a senior lawmaker of the opposition Republican People Party, said the verdict spelled the end of such amendments.

“From now on, no one will be able to attempt to change the constitution,” Oymen told NTV television.

“This decision reminds the ruling party what it can do or it cannot do despite winning 47 percent of the votes,” Husamettin Cindoruk, former parliament speaker, told NTV television. “This decision has set the boundaries and reshaped the state.”

In February, parliament passed constitutional amendments to allow headscarves to be worn at universities – but not in schools or state offices. The secular opposition appealed to the top court.

Turkey’s 70 million people are predominantly Muslim. But secularists feared that lifting the ban at universities would erode Turkey’s secular nature and create pressure on all female students to cover themselves.

Pious female students have been forced to remove their headscarves at the entrance to campuses. Some have attended classes wearing wigs.