ISTANBUL, Turkey — Turkey’s highest court Wednesday decided against outlawing the ruling party, which had been accused of attempting to advance an Islamist agenda in officially secular Turkey.
The narrow verdict, which came after three days of closed-door hearings, averted what could have been a drawn-out political crisis but did little to address fundamental tensions between religiously observant Turks and their more secular-minded compatriots.
In its ruling, the Constitutional Court penalized the Justice and Development Party, known by its Turkish initials, AKP, with financial sanctions that represent a loss of about half the party’s subsidy from the government treasury. But the penalty was not expected to significantly curtail the AKP’s ability to function because the shortfall can be made up at least in part by private donations.
The verdict was greeted with evident relief by the AKP. Cabinet minister Faruk Celik called it a victory for Turkish democracy. The party had steadfastly denied the charges and said they were politically motivated.
Outlawing the AKP, which solidly won last summer’s parliamentary elections, would have been a drastic step for the court to take. A ban on the party or any of its senior leaders would probably have forced early elections and seriously damaged Turkey’s prospects for moving ahead with efforts to join the European Union.
The AKP’s constituency is mainly made up of devout Muslims whose growing economic prosperity has emboldened them to seek what they consider greater religious freedoms. The secular camp, though, sees public displays of piety, even in an overwhelmingly Muslim country, as a violation of Turkey’s secular constitution.
The case against the AKP was brought by prosecutors after the government tried earlier this year to lift a ban on the wearing of Muslim head scarves in public universities. That prohibition has its roots in the decision of modern Turkey’s highly respected founding father, Kemal Ataturk, to ban religious dress in public institutions.
