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Turkey's Banned Islamic Party Goes to European Court
ANKARA, June 24 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Outlawed Virtue Party (FP) conservative leader Recai Kutan described as "unfair" Turkey's Constitutional Court's verdict to ban the pro-Islamic party, and announced - in a meeting of FP members of parliament - that the party would go to the European Human Rights Court to have Friday's verdict annulled.
A number of Virtue MPs emphasized on TV announcements broadcast Friday, June 22, that the whole lot of remaining Virtue MPs - 100 - were ready to submit mass resignations to the Turkish parliament.
They further warned of a Virtue alliance with the Turkish people in a popular movement aimed at confronting the latest encroachment on wounded Turkish democracy.
Dr. Sheref Melkoc, an MP and a Virtue lawyer at the Constitutional Court, described the verdict as essentially political and pointed out the deliberate immediacy of its issuance before the European Human Rights Court verdict concerning the banned Welfare Party (RP).
"The Constitutional Court decided to carry out an immediate ban," said Melkoc, "without even awaiting publication in the national gazette as the law stipulates."
Meanwhile, dismayed popular circles expressed great disappointment and shock over the Constitutional Court's Friday ruling seen as an answer to FP protests against a headscarf ban in universities.
Virtue legislator Merve Kavakci's attempt in 1999 to take an oath in parliament wearing a headscarf also figured high among anti-secular activities triggering the verdict.
That move was seen as a symbolic challenge to Turkey's strictly secular order, which is firmly upheld by the country's powerful army that sees what it calls "radical Islam" as one of the main threats to stability.
The Friday verdict made Virtue - Turkey's main opposition party and third biggest political force - the fourth pro-Islamic party to be banned in mainly Muslim Turkey, where the secularist elite, led by the military, has constantly clamped down on political Islam due to fears that it could drag the country from its pro-Western path, although Virtue has been considered more moderate than some of its predecessors, reported BBC.
Virtue had 102 of the country's 550-seat parliament, and the court's decision to strip only two of those deputies of their parliamentary mandates meant that Turkey would evade much-feared by-elections, which would have become necessary if at least 20 MPs had lost their seats.
Famed Turkish journalist Fehmi Kuru questioned - on a TV interview Friday - the credibility of the Constitutional Court's decision to oust only 2 out of 102 of the party's deputies.
"If the court's charges of Virtue's anti-secular activities were true," he asked, " why then oust only two of 102 party members?"
The court also banned five party members, including the two ousted MPs - Nazli Ilicak and Bekir Sobaci - from politics for five years for acts and remarks that had prompted the ban.
In addition, the court ordered the confiscation of all party assets and their handover to the treasury.
A consensus among most Turkish politicians and men of law maintains that the verdict aims at preventing Virtue from any constitutional amendment in parliament in the coming few days, news agencies reported.
The Friday ruling is further expected to tarnish Turkey's image at a time when the country has to carry out far-reaching democratic reforms to promote its candidacy for European Union membership.
The verdict also triggered U.S. dismay with the U.S. State Department announcing: "We regret the closure of this party because it is contrary to accepted international norms of democracy".
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