Turkey is on the verge of collapse, from which it may never recover

PanARMENIAN.Net - Meanwhile, Turkey's Attorney General Abdurrahman Yalcinkaya is firm in his assertion that the 70 members of the AKP, including President Abdullah Gul and Prime-Minister Recep Erdogan should be banned from political activity for 5 years. By the way, the situation is not a novelty for Modern Turkey - any time the army considered the possibility of deviating from the principles of Ataturk and follow the Islamic way of growth, the Constitutional Court used to make similar decisions. The story began in early 70s, when Necmettin Erbakan founded the National Order Party (Milli Nizam Partisi, or MNP). Later, the MNP being banned, Erbakan had to found the Welfare Party (Refah Partisi) and, after a time, the Virtue Party (Fazilet Partisi) as reincarnation of the previously banned parties. All the predecessors of the AKP had a negative approach towards the West and were banned by the Court. However, none of the above-mentioned parties was ruling at the time the verdict was announced. The present situation is much more serious. And though the court decision is still unknown, the Turkish Press already speaks of secret meetings between Erdo?an and Gul. In all probability leaders of the Party want to outline their line of conduct for every possible case.
On the first day the closed hearings of the Constitutional Court lasted for 12 hours. Under Turkish law, party closures require a two thirds majority (seven of the eleven members) of the court. The hearings will be held every day until the Court arrives at a final verdict. The local observers consider the decision should not be expected before 1 August. As the Deputy Chief Justice said the panel of judges would make every effort to finish the hearings "as soon as possible".

According to the Daily Telegraph the explosions in Turkey once again reminded of the country's instability. "On the one hand, Turkey is a secular country of the western type and, somehow, serves as a prototype of the Near East. The country is running for a membership in the EC, and once it joins the EC, it will become a kind of bridge between Europe and the Islamic world. And the fact that Turkey is a NATO member makes it an indispensable ally for the West in a very uneasy region. However, Turkey's ruling party causes alarm. Not so long ago the Government intended to declare adultery a criminal offence. In the same way the fact that the Prime-Minister's wife wears a headscarf may trouble those who consider that the secular constitution of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk might be risked. The fact of hearings itself demonstrates the strength of the Turkish secular forces, which used to rely on the military support. But such problems had better be solved in the Court, instead of being decided by the generals," the Daily Telegraph says.

The Financial Times states in the Editorial that the explosions in Istanbul deepened the political crisis in Turkey.

"Turkey's future and modernization are at stake. The decision to outlaw the ruling party and ban President Abdullah Gul and Prime-Minister Recep Erdo?an from political activity would mean a turnover organized by the panel of judges. In its turn, it will result in chaos that will throw back Turkey. The secular-minded elite in the army, in the bureaucratic state and in the court system foresees danger for itself on the part of the Neo-Islamic party, which enjoys the confidence of a considerable number of voters. The judges and generals must realize how much Turkey has developed for the past several years, carefully weighing all the risks of banning the ruling party. The ban might result in chaos. Moreover, it may throw Turkey into a chasm from which it may never rise again," the Financial Times reports.

It might be necessary to remind that for the most part Turkey is an Islamic country and the laws of Shariat, banned by Ataturk, still reign in Turkish rural areas. Not by chance the AKP won 47% of votes in the last year's elections. In case of pre-term elections any Islamic party under any name can win more than 50% of votes. In this case no constitutional court can help the military out.

EC Commissioner Olley Ren expressed anxiety over the attempts to ban the ruling party and implied that he could complicate the claims from Ankara. He eyes the present situation in Turkey as a struggle between the "authoritarian secularists" and "democratic Muslims". Brussels believes that decisions like banning a political party must be made in the Parliament and not in the court. On the other hand, many European observers hold a totally different point of view. According to them, a country, which is part of Europe and is eager to gain access into the EC, has no right to have a religious government. Many of them strongly fear that in case the role of religion is increased in the country, Turkey, in a short while, may become a second Afghanistan or Iraq.