SECULARIST LAW-SUIT AGAINST TURKEY'S RULING ISLAMIST PARTY MOVES FORWARD

Ever sinceTurkey's Islamist party took power in 2002 Turkey had been a weak ally - at best.

They wouldn't allow us to use their country to enter Iraq, and forced us to change our strategy just weeks before the war. These changes made the post-war period worse than it would have been.

They are now refusing to send COMBAT troops to Afghanistan; (they have non-combat troops patrolling in some pacified cities). GEE: Thanks again you ungrateful scumb*gs.

Some deeply secularist Turks don't like it, and they're trying to get the courts to do something about it.

Analysis from The Kuwait Times:

Turkey faces a lengthy period of political uncertainty that could undermine its economy and European Union entry bid after prosecutors launched a case to shut down the ruling AK Party for alleged Islamist activities. But many analysts predict the centre-right, pro-business AK Party will survive the legal challenge, which they characterise as the last stand of an unaccountable and discredited conservative secular elite out of step with modern Turkey.

There will be a period of uncertainty, but it is 90 percent certain the AK Party government will survive this," said William Hale, author of books on Turkish politics and now teaching at Istanbul's Sabanci University. "The problem is it could all take as much as two years, though my impression is the court will act much more quickly in this particular case, perhaps within three to five months.

A top prosecutor asked the Constitutional Court on Friday to close the AK Party and ban Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan and some 70 other party officials from politics for five years on the grounds that they are trying to build an Islamic state. NATO member Turkey is overwhemingly Muslim but has a secular system. Its secularist elite, including the judges and army generals, has long accused the AK Party of plotting to erode the separation of state and religion, a claim the government denies.

Erdogan, Turkey's most popular politician by far, has branded the lawsuit an attack on democracy and vowed to fight. Prosecutors have been weighing an indictment against the AK Party for years, analysts say, but parliament's recent decision to ease a ban on women students wearing the Muslim headscarf in universities gave them the crucial ammunition to act.

LOCAL ANALYSIS:

2008 was supposed to be a year of reform and progress. So far things have not exactly gone as planned as Turkey enters another period of volcanic activity with the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) and Turkey's radical secularists square up for yet another battle.

For the second time in a decade the chief prosecutor of the Supreme Court of Appeals filed a closure case against a ruling party. The first time was against the Islamist Welfare Party (RP), again brought on charges of acting against the secularism principle of the Turkish Republic and lasted seven months, resulting with the Constitutional Court closing down the party. Now it is the turn of the AK Party. This is the latest twist in an ongoing story to remove the party from power and cast its most influential members into political exile for as long as possible. They were unable to do this in 2007 during the turbulent days of Abdullah Gül's presidential nomination. Paradoxically, their underhand behavior and manipulation of the judicial system helped Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan enhance his popularity and win a second term in office. Now those very same people who claim to be working in the best interests of the nation are having a second bite at the apple.

The prosecutor, who argues that the AK Party has become "the focal point of anti-secular activities," has compiled a 162-page indictment listing alleged infringements of Turkey's strict constitutional separation of religion and the state under AK Party rule. Although I am opposed to some of the activities carried out by certain circles of the AK Party (and have witnessed them first hand) -- e.g., support for the implementation of a ban on alcohol in public spaces, distributing copies of the Quran and preferential treatment given to women wearing a headscarf at some municipalities, there are still clearly no grounds for the closure of the party, which would be a clear strike against democracy. So in that respect one could say that the chief prospector himself is "the focal-point of anti-democratic activities."

• I THINK IT WOULD BE NICE IF THE SUIT WOULD WIN, AND THE AK SHUT DOWN.
• OR ELSE TURKEY WILL SLIDE INTO ISLAMICIST RULE LIKE SAUDI ARABIA.
• BUT IT IS LIKELY THAT THE SUIT WILL FAIL AND TURKEY BECOME LESS WESTERN.
• LIKE EUROPE IS.