Turkey's prime minister hits back at the prosecutor's move to ban AKP

Erdogan, noting that 16.5 million people had voted for the AKP in elections in July. "No one can say that these people are a focal point of anti-secular activities," he added in his first public remarks after Yalcinkaya's move.

 

Attacking Yalcinkaya, Erdogan warned that "those responsible for such shame and injustice will suffer the consequences of this irresponsible recourse." Erdogan said the AKP, which emerged in 2001 from a banned Islamist party, was fighting for democracy, and stressed its economic achievements since 2002.

 

Turkey's Constitutional Court has disbanded an Islamic Party in the past. In 1997, the court ruled for the closure of Premier Necmettin Erbakan's Welfare Party, the party that the Islamist AKP has its roots, on grounds that it was engaged in anti-secular activity.

 

The court is to meet Monday to decide whether to accept the complaint, which charges that the AKP has become a focal point for attempts to overturn the strictly secular ethos that underlies Turkey's constitution. For the details of indictment please click here.

 

 

AKP SLAMS THE MOVE

 

AKP officials criticized the move. AKP Deputy Chairman Dengir Mir Mehmet Firat told reporters on Friday that Turkish democracy was forced face such "a big shame". "The target of this closure case is not AK Party but the Turkish democracy and will of the nation" he added.

 

"We have to think about what Turkey will gain and what it will lose from this demand concerning a party with such a majority in parliament," Gul told reporters today during a visit to Senegal, according to the Anatolia news agency. "We have to think of the results and we have to think hard."

 

Ertugrul Gunay, Minister of Culture and Tourism, said Friday that the lawsuit filed for the closure of AKP was not only an injustice to itself, but a great disrespect to Turkey, AA reported.

 

 

UNCERTAINITY AHEAD 

"We think that the application is really bad news as it will increase political risk factors in the country," Ozgur Altug, analyst at Raymond James Securities, said in a note.

 

"The court case has even the potential to slow down the reform process, Privatisation and foreign direct investment inflows," he said.

 

Political tensions have grown since parliament, dominated by the AK Party, approved constitutional amendments last month to ease a ban on women students wearing the headscarf on university campuses.

 

Experts also warned that the move could trigger a sell-off in Turkish markets as the global conditions still negative due to the credit crisis and a U.S. recession fears.

 

Some analysts, however, said the case could be a warning for AKP. "I think that it would be really difficult to close down a party that has half of the popular support," Soner Cagaptay, an analyst at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy told Bloomberg. "It is perhaps a warning from the court that the Justice party should not legislate further on the headscarf issue. It's saying `don't take it any further."