Turkey’s EU hopes alive as ruling party escapes closure[fr][de] 

Six out of ten judges opted in favour of banning the party, stopping just one vote short of the two-thirds majority necessary for such a decision. 

However, 10 out of 11 court members found the AKP guilty of being "a centre of anti-secular activities", a serious accusation in a country where the military had led several coups against governments that were allegedly trying to impose Islam as state religion. 

The ruling, which will strip the party of half of its state funding, is meant to send a “serious warning” to the AKP to not question the country’s traditional separation between state and religion, Hasim Kilic, the court chairman read in his statement. 

He also urged the other political parties to make the necessary legal arrangements to avoid any further party closure cases. 

EU relief

The case was closely watched by the EU, which considered it not in line with the democratic standards expected of a potential EU member. 

"In a normal European democracy, political issues are debated in the parliament and decided through the ballot box, not in the court rooms," Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn had said earlier in March. 

The final judgment was greeted with relief by EU officials and observers alike, arguing it could serve to ease the power struggle between Islamic and secular forces in the country and could restore political stability. 

Just three days before the ruling, two bombs detonated in Istanbul, killing at least 16 people and wounding more than 150 (EurActiv 28/07/08). No group has yet claimed responsibility, but the government was quick in blaming the terror group PKK.

At the same time, the country is faced with ongoing indictments against former secular elites called the Ergenekon group, charged with forming a terrorist group to overthrow the government (EurActiv 15/07/08), an event Prime Minister Erdogan was seeking to link to the closure case, saying not the state, but the AKP was under threat. 

"I hope the party in question will evaluate this outcome very well and get the message it should get," Hasim Kilic, the court chairman said. 

Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan said the court's ruling removed uncertainities and pledged commitment to the secular system. "The Justice and Development Party (AKP), which has never been a focal point of anti-secular activities, will continue to defend the basic principles of the republic," he stressed. 

"Turkey has lost serious time and energy since March 14 (when the closure case was filed). What we need to do is to focus on the future without sticking on the past and compensate for what we lost in the meantime." 

Faruk Celik, the Turkish Labour Minister, considered the ruling “a victory for Turkish democracy”.  

“This ruling raised the democracy bar to a higher level”, the speaker of the Turkish parliament, Koksal Toptan, said, adding that "a serious sense of relief will be felt in Turkey”. 

Oktay Vural, group chairman of the MHP, one of the two main opposition parties, which had clearly spoken in favour of the closure, said the court's ruling should be respected. 

Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn said he took “good note of the ruling of the Constitutional Court”, encouraging Turkey “now to resume with full energy its reforms to modernise the country”. 

For Turkey’s political parties, alignment with European standards would be “essential”, Rehn pointed out. 

Cristina Gallach, spokeswoman for EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana told Reuters: "Of course we have to read it now in more detail, but it is positive. Turkey is living a tense situation and we very much hope that the decision by the court will contribute to restore political stability". 

The UK Liberal Andrew Duff, Vice-President of the European Parliament’s EU-Turkey Joint Committee, who has followed the court case from Istanbul, considered the ruling “a prudent decision” and “an encouraging signal that Islam and modern world are compatible”. 

Talking to EurActiv, Duff lauded the Court for acknowledging the necessity to respect the parliamentary democracy as the “guiding factor”. 

Furthermore, the ruling would bring the accession talks with the EU “back on track” and deprive the Turkey-sceptic Presidency of any excuse to not move the talks forward, Duff said. 

Commenting on the ruling, Cem Özdemir, German MEP with Turkish origin and foreign policy spokesman of the Greens in the Parliament, said that the Turkish court “has sent a clear signal for the stability of Turkey’s democracy and prevented the political and economic crisis to be expected”. 

The ruling would offer “a chance for a new start for the AKP as well as the opposition parties for jointly moving moving the democratisation processs forward”. Özdemir called on the EU and its member states to now sending “positive signals” to Turkey that it was welcomed in the ‘club’. 

Carl Bildt, Chairman of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe, welcomed the ruling with "great atisfaction", saying "it opens up for further reforms, ensuring Turkey’s further progress in line with European norms of democratic governance, human rights and the rule of law".

For Senem Aydin Düzgit, Turkish scholar at the Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS), the ruling did not come as a surprise. “There have been signs recently that the judges are aware of the political instability they might cause in Turkey with the closure of the party.” 

Talking to EurActiv, she called the judgment “a very good sign”, which “relieves the EU and Turkey of great tensions”, and “a huge step towards the further democratisation of the country”. 

“This ruling doesn’t mean that the party has been cleared of charges,” Mithat Sancar, a law professor of Ankara University told the New York Times. 

“Cutting the party’s treasury funds means that the evidence for their anti-secular activity was there but not substantial enough to impose a ban. Therefore they warned the party to be careful in their actions to avoid closure in the future.”