Turkish ruling party may face charges

Turkey’s chief prosecutor asked its highest court Friday to disband the ruling party for allegedly attacking the country’s secular traditions, including its ban on head scarves in universities, a court official said.

The move escalated the conflict between the Muslim nation’s long-established secular elite and the Justice and Development Party, which was reelected in July and has been working to ease limits on public religious expression with the support of Turkey’s conservative rural population and working class.

In a 150-page petition to the Constitutional Court, prosecutor Abdurrahman Yalcinkaya accused the party of being the “focal point of anti-secular activities.”

Court head Hasim Kilic told reporters that the prosecutor had asked that 71 party leaders -- including Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and President Abdullah Gul -- be banned from political life for five years.

Gul, who as president is considered neutral toward all political parties under the law, served as foreign minister in Erdogan’s previous Cabinet.

Erdogan and other party leaders held an emergency meeting minutes after the prosecutor’s move was made public.

It will probably be months before the court holds a hearing on Yalcinkaya’s petition.

The indictment cites Erdogan’s efforts to lift the ban on head scarves as evidence of an Islamist agenda, a court official said, on condition of anonymity, as he was not allowed to give the information.

The indictment could not immediately be made public under Turkish law.

Turkey’s establishment, including the military, legal system and civil service, has been staunchly secular since Mustafa Kemal Ataturk established the state from the ashes of the Ottoman Empire

Parliament, where the ruling party has a majority, voted last month to rescind a decades-old ban on wearing the head scarf in universities. The legislation is being reviewed by the Constitutional Court.

Erdogan has denied his party has a religious agenda, pointing to his promotion of reforms intended to help clinch European Union membership.